AS102 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 16, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: becoming a nun in the old days? hopeful husband-to-be wonders if convent trumps marriage, online vocation help, professional nuns, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What do today’s teenagers think about nuns?
• I have known a dear friend for over two years. One day I wish to be her husband. However she is seeking a life as a nun. Should I keep my feelings to myself in fear I may be in her way to a life as a sister, or should I confess my feelings?
• I have seen a few convents that have weekend retreats where women can go to experience what it is like. Is there any website where I can get a list of all convents that have these events? Be sure to check out Vision Vocation Network!

• • Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace
  • Poor Clares of New Jersey
  • Redemptoristine Nuns

    More info on scoping out nuns at aNunsLife.org/comeandsee – links to resources to help discern how to become a sister or nun

• What to do if you don’t get a good vibe from a religious community? Does that mean you don’t have a vocation?
• Can you be a speech language pathologist and a nun too?
• Knowing what you know now about past nun life, as opposed to modern day nun life, would you have joined then, or not?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

I was at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, this past weekend. It is always great to be home and to hang out with my nuns. I want to tell you about this amazing moment that happened at the Sunday Eucharist. Chapel of course was filled with IHM Sisters, associates, family and friends of the community, and a variety of visitors.

I was sitting about midway back and in front of me was the family of one of our sisters who is in health care. Sister was in a wheelchair at the side of the row. Next to her was this precious young woman, a grandniece perhaps, maybe in her late teens, early twenties. The young woman had on a bright fuchsia and had fabulous blue-painted nails. She emanated vitality and youth!

When I first saw the family, I thought how sweet it was that they were here and wondered briefly what the young woman might have been feeling sitting there with her aunt and surrounded by so many adults and elders. I wondered if she felt uncomfortable or nervous or out of place. It didn’t take long for me to find out that my fleeting thought was far from the truth.

Around the time of the homily, the young woman turned toward her aunt and smiled  – a long, beaming smile. She reached gently for her aunt’s hand and for a few minutes the two just looked at one another with this profound tenderness and love. For the rest of Mass, they remained this way, hand in hand.

I don’t remember the homily or much of the rest of Mass but I can tell you that in that moment an old nun and a young woman preached one of the most powerful homilies I will ever have the privilege of witnessing.

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

AS101 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 9, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: how nuns elect their community leaders, saying no to nun smear campaigns, the common good, the book of Genesis, varied images of God and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The IHM sisters recently elected a new leadership team. How is this done?  Do sisters run against each other? Are there term limits? Is the process similar for most orders?
• What about general chapter for contemplative monasteries or for international communities? And differences or similarities?
• A listener named Anna talks about her joys and challenges in reading the book of Genesis and encountering a myriad of images of God — are there any wrong images of God? What happens when one image is used as the only image of God?
• Mentioned in the broadcast: “Are Our Images of God Growing?” by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. in Catholic Update

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

At the end of January, Sister Maxine and I had the awesome privilege of attending our congregation‘s General Chapter. It was a week long and consisted in prayer, community, study, conversation, reflection, and decision-making. Our primary decisions were to embrace a specific direction for our congregation over the next 6 years and to elect a new leadership team.

Although Chapter is part and parcel of our life as Catholic sisters and nuns today, it might seem like a secret event veiled in mystery for those outside of religious life! So, here’s a bit more about what Chapter is. I am drawing here from my brother Redemptorists who provide a great intro on General Chapter.

The General Chapter is a visible expression of a fundamental sense of democracy that lies at the heart of religious life. This democracy is based on the radical equality of all the members by virtue of their baptism and their religious consecration, hence their common vocation to be prophets or spokespersons for God. In this sense, a General Chapter resembles more the gathering of Mary and the apostles at Pentecost than a modern parliament or congress. The participants in the General Chapter gather in the name of Jesus Christ, confident that his Spirit will help us to accomplish our work.

What are those tasks? The General Chapter must first take an honest look at the state of the Congregation… This examination should then lead the Chapter members to face honestly certain discomforting questions: are we faithful to our mission or have we slid into mediocrity? What is the Lord asking of us today? How are we being asked to change? The General Chapter will offer specific directives for the whole Congregation as it proposes a path to help [religious] live more authentically their … vocation. Finally, the delegates will elect the leadership of the Congregation for the next six years … (source: Redemptorist website)

For our IHM General Chapter, we had a gathering of over 150 IHM Sisters and were joined for some parts of Chapter by our IHM Associates and others who could be of great help in our discernment and decision-making. One of the best parts was that we come together from across the globe, across ministries, across generations, across cultures and gather under one roof. It was a visible expression of the community we experience with one another every day of our religious life no matter where we are.

What questions do you have about Chapter or related topics? Sister Maxine and I are going to tackle the subject on this week’s Ask Sister Podcast so let’s get the conversations started now!

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

I am not a big fan of the New Year’s resolution thing, and so I wasn’t planning on blogging about anything resolution-esque.

But then I read Father Jim Martin’s post over at Huffington Post, 12 Really Stupid Things I Never Want To Do Again (December 29, 2011). As I reflected on it, I realized that I’ve partaken of a dozen or so really stupid things myself! So I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to consider something new for the new year. No, not a new really stupid thing, but a new idea or habit or virtue I could reflect and focus on.

Nothing much had come across my path in the last 24 hours so I figured I’d just skip it. Then, as I was going through me email, I found one that our IHM Community sent out — a “Remembering” reflection in honor of my friend and IHM Sister who died early this week. In her remembering I found these words of hers:

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.
    ~ Sister Frances Ryan, IHM

These are words that I will treasure and strive to live out of as Frances did throughout her life. You can read more about Sister Frances in a 2009 article on our IHM website.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 21 :: O Radiant Dawn written by Sister Joyce

Original art by Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM

O Oriens: “O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

I saiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1).

Listen to this verse sung in Gregorian chant by the North American Choir:

O Oriens, splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justitiæ: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

What dawn do you await in your life?

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

Join the nuns and community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 15 :: Mary written by Sister Maxine

Artwork by He Qi

With Christmas just around the corner, ‘tis the season for Nativity sets. They seem to be everywhere – at churches, the grocery store, schools, my neighbors’ front lawns. Inside each of them is the familiar figure of Mary, about to give birth to Jesus.

In some of the Nativity sets, Mary wears a blue and white flowing gown and is surrounded by dramatic lighting. In others, she looks like a travel-weary young woman in threadbare clothing. In one very unusual Nativity set Mary is wearing a 1960s style peasant blouse and a long brown skirt probably made of organic material (Joseph was wearing sunglasses).

The various images of Mary make me think about the various Marys in my life, and the ways they symbolically give birth to something new. There are the two Marys who received me into the IHM congregation, certainly a life-changing moment for me. There is the good friend Mary whose death at an early age awakened in me a profound sense of the beauty of life. There is the Mary who was my first encounter with Vatican II theology and, to my astonishment, talked about an imminent, loving, caring God and a Church known as the People of God.

So as I go by the Nativity sets this year, I say a prayer for all the Marys in my life, the Marys who are the source of new life not only for me but in all the relationships around them. Thank you, Marys!

Who are the Marys that you know who bring forth new life? How have they affected you?

Mary, be with us as we seek to be a source of new life and hope in the world, to be the bearer of Christ to all we encounter in our life

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

Join the nuns and community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

AS094 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 30, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nun hairstyles, a question of morals, debunking nun myths for your friends, explaining nuns to a 4-year-old child, weird detours, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• A novelist wants to know what’s under the veil for sisters circa 1960: hair or no hair?
• A listener asks if there are moral qualifications to be a nun. We’ll expand the convo to talk about moral qualifications for vocations of all types.
• What to tell friends about nuns and virginity, nuns and trust funds, and nuns who are parents.
• Can sisters and nuns keep assets and inheritances when they enter religious life?
• Do nuns get an allowance or stipend?
• A mom wonders how to explain what nuns are to her four-year-old.
• Are weird detours part of God’s plan?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

I have always been fascinated with icons and iconography. I love the colors, the gold leaf, the aliveness, and the mystery of icons! It is a great blessing to have one of my own IHM Sisters as an iconographer because I get to hang around her studio, learn from her, and be in the presence of sacred art!

During our Fall Fundraiser, Sister Nancy Lee graciously allowed the A Nun’s Life film crew into her studio where she explained how icons are made and what they mean.
We did an 8-part series of videos which are available for free here and on the A Nun’s Life Youtube Channel. Part I is below and the others you can find at anunslife.org/iconography.

Part I: Becoming and Iconographer

Visit at anunslife.org/iconography for all 8 videos!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight and every weekday at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live.

AS093 Ask Sister podcast published on November 24, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. This is a Special Edition on Saints, holiness, and joy. The nuns are joined by Catholic superstars Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, and Father James Martin, SJ.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Sister Sandra Schneiders

• What is the Scriptural basis for the saints?
• In iconography and in various visual renderings, the saints are often pictured with some kind of symbol that speaks to something about their life — Teresa of Avila is pictured with a dove and quill, Saint Joseph with carpentry tools. Centuries from now, what symbol would you hope would be associated with you?
• What does holiness mean in general as well as in the ups and downs of our daily life?
• What was it like first getting to  know the author of the Fourth Gospel?
• Check out Sister Sandra’s new book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church

Father James Martin

• What role do saints play in our prayers?
• Is it considered a miracle that some saints do not decompose after dying?
• Isn’t holiness a pretty serious thing? What role do joy, humor, and laughter play in the spiritual life?
• What’s the deal with relics?
• What advice would you give to people who want to live a saintly life?
• Check out Father Jim’s new book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS092 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 17, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: call and dread in discernment, a novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, ministry to and with children, cooking and cleaning nuns, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The work of discernment: call and dread. Really?
• Novelist asks about nuns in childcare ministries, and Sister Camille Brouillard responds by describing what it was like to minister to children with AIDS.
• I found a description of sisters and nuns on a diocesan website that describes their lives in terms of cooking and housekeeping and wanting to be loved and, oh yeah, some prayer too. What’s up with that?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Ilove this reflection on discernment! For me, it pretty much describes in a nutshell my experience of discerning God’s call, especially at times when I find an intersection where I thought only one road existed.

Photo by Alesa Dam

The reflection was written by Sister Mary Fran Gilleran, IHM, and was published in Midwiving a Vibrant Future, by the Leadership Council of Women Religious.

The work of discernment sets a challenge before us. We enter a process of choice and decision-making with many aspects to it. The deepest calls of our lives, the times when we know we have to choose, are profound moments.

These moments always seem to have two sides: call and dread. A call that challenges us, that we know is right, confronts us with dread at the same time. We know this call will require new demands of us. It will require taking on and letting go of familiar patterns and ways of being comfortable. It elicits dread even though we know it is time, it is needed, it is even good for us and for the whole.

Midwives of the new must know when to push for the next stage and when to simply breathe in and through both call and dread. They are two sides of the same invitation. There is a time to throw away. And it is all part of one process.

How does this reflection resonate with your experience of discernment?

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Join A Nun’s Life community tonight for prayer at aNunsLife.org/live at 6 p.m. CT (your time zone) Come a bit early or stay a bit late and chat with us in the chat room!

On this day of celebration for IHM Founders Day and for the A Nun’s Life Community surpassing its fundraising goal, we give thanks for you and for the way the Spirit continues to live and move and have being in the world and in us! We welcome as our guest blogger today our dear friend and IHM Sister, Margaret Brennan.

Today we celebrate one hundred and sixty-six years of IHM life… and as we do on each Founder’s Day, we look back to many celebrations of the old story which we learned from our earliest days in the congregation … the frontier community of Monroe, the log cabin, the first women, the zealous young founder – Louis Florent Gillet whose words have given us life and continued existence – “…if I cannot find a religious community I will make one.” And so he did.

When the young Redemptorist missionary visited Baltimore from Monroe, he met Theresa Maxis Duchemin who was searching for a spiritual home in which she could pursue her calling. On November 10, 1845, Louis and Theresa along with Charlotte Martha Schaaf and Therese Renaud formed the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The story of the two founders, like those of many others, was fraught with struggle and challenge that honed and humbled their spirits in the crucibles of suffering and misunderstanding. Yet in the end, they both came to rest in the deep consolation of knowing that a work begun in poverty and obscurity had flourished and taken root.

Today we continue to stand within the charisms of these two founders at another critical juncture in religious life. The over-flowing novitiates of the pre-Vatican era are no more and have given way to another reality, the deep meaning of which has yet to be discovered and discerned.

Women religious such as Sandra Schneiders IHM and Joan Chittister, OSB, among others have written and reflected on this reality. Rather than being discouraged, they have seen in the changing landscape of religious life a new hope, a new direction, and a new understanding of a way of life that has enriched the Church in countless
ways for generations.

We are challenged today to see the working of God’s Providence in our present reality … to find meaning rather than mourning or dispair. We are challenged further to consider the possibility that what lies ahead of us is not something merely to survive but, by the grace of God, something that will truly allow us to flourish.

We offer this Saints Novena in gratitude for the ways God lives and moves and has being in the lives of all the saints who are part of this online community. We give thanks for you and for the gift of God that you are to us and to the world. It is because of people like you that there is this awesome place of hospitality and gospel community. This novena is written by the A Nun’s Life Community.

3 Saints Novena – Saint Francis of Assisi – by Audra

Reflection: Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the most popular saints ever. There have been hundreds of books, several movies and one Broadway play done on this twelfth century saint. But for me, what makes the cool points go through the roof is that Saint Francis has his own comic book- and not just any comic book a Marvel comic book. Yes, that’s right. The kings of the comic books wrote a comic book about Saint Francis.

Francis Berandone was born into the middle class but always dreamt of being a knight. He fought in the Perugian War but was captured and put in prison for a year. It was while he was in prison that Francis first began to experience the hints of how God was calling him. In prison, Francis saw how the very men he had respected and served valiantly with were now fighting each other for food. Instead of joining them, he found that he felt joy when he gave food to the other prisoners.

When freed, Francis returned to his partying ways — and was really good at it. When fights between the pope and German princes broke out, he again was lured back to his dream to be a knight. Francis purchased the finest armor and rode with other soldiers to defend the Church. But one night before the war, God told Francis in a dream to return to Assisi. A would-be knight turning away from a fight was more than Francis’ family could bear and they were embarrassed by him. So one day Francis went to Mount Subasio to pray. He didn’t hear God’s voice but felt freer just by praying. Francis prayed intensely for a year but still couldn’t hear God’s voice. Then one day while walking he came upon a leper. At first Francis was scared, but then he felt overwhelmed with compassion and reached out and gave the leper a hug.

Later on, Francis went to the San Damiano church to pray in front of the Crucifix. Suddenly Jesus came alive and told Francis to “rebuild my church.” Francis took this to heart, and did his best to sell his merchant father’s bolts of clothes for building supplies. Unimpressed, his father found out and took him straight to the bishop. Francis’ father asked for the clothes back. Francis obliged, and right then and there took off all of his clothes in front of everyone. This marked Francis’ choice to leave behind all the expectations of his family and his own expectations and follow God.

A few days later Francis’ friend Bernardo asked to join him. Eventually more men joined them. Seeing the numbers grow Francis went to the Pope to ask if he would start a new religious order. The Pope said no, but that night he had a dream that Francis was able to rebuild the church. The next day the Pope gave Francis his blessing.

When Francis returned to Assisi, his friend Clare — yes, THE Clare — came to him asking to join his new order. Francis was hesitant at first, but then told Clare that she could live under the same laws as the Friars. The Poor Clares were born!

A few comic book days later, Francis witnessed the battle of the crusades and decided to speak with the sultan to stop the war. Francis gained the respect of the Sultan and was given a pennant so he could safely travel to all of the holy places of Jesus’ life.

After the trip, Francis came back to find his order … umm… not in order. They forced him to write rules other than the Gospels to live by. So Francis did what he always did when he needed to pray: he headed for the hills. Like Jesus, Francis spent much time in prayer in mountains. There on Mount La Verna he received the Stigmata. He became an instant celebrity as people heard about these extraordinary marks of  holiness. Over the next two years Francis’ health deteriorated. As he lay on the death bed Francis said, “Praise the Lord, for our Sister, death whom none can escape. My soul is at peace. I am prepared to meet her. Welcome Sister Death.” Francis died on October 3, 1226.

Saint Francis to me is an everyday, working person’s type of saint. He was also crazy. Crazy for God that is. I wish I can be that type of crazy. He didn’t care if you were man, woman or beast — you were a child of God and worthy of love. I think that’s why he is also the patron saint of animals. They were his sisters and brothers too.

Prayer: A very popular Prayer NOT written by Saint Francis but is something he would say: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Suggested Reading:

• “Francis, Brother of the Universe” Comic Book by Marvel
  
• Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by Saint Bonaventure

** Be sure to join in today’s Litany of the Pets at 6 p.m. Central Time followed by the first ever PAWCAST featuring the pets of A Nun’s Life Community! Click here for more info on the Litany of Pets and Pawcast!

Join A Nun’s Life Community for a day of events in honor of All Saints! See the schedule for the day’s events in the sidebar to the right. And please consider participating in A Nun’s Life fundraiser going on now through November 9. We need to raise $10,000 for much needed equipment and supplies. See our fundraiser page for more information. You may be eligible to win a brand-new iPad 2!

We offer this Saints Novena in gratitude for the ways God lives and moves and has being in the lives of all the saints who are part of this online community. We give thanks for you and for the gift of God that you are to us and to the world. It is because of people like you that there is this awesome place of hospitality and gospel community. This novena is written by the A Nun’s Life Community.

2 Saints Novena – Theresa Maxis Duchemin and Louis Florent Gillet – by Sister Julie

Reflection: Saints take many forms, canonical and otherwise. In today’s novena we celebrate all the saints who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith,” those who may not be canonized but who have had a profound influence on our lives. Today we honor two such saints, founders of the religious congregations of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

While general superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Theresa Maxis Duchemin met the Redemptorist missionary Louis Florent Gillet, who was seeking women religious for schools in the still new State of Michigan. After much discernment, Theresa agreed to help Gillet found a new congregation in Monroe. On November 10, 1845, Theresa along with Charlotte Schaaf and Therese Renaud, became  the first members of a new religious community dedicated to education in the frontier land of Michigan.

In January 1846, they opened St. Mary’s Academy in Monroe. As the community and mission grew, Father Gillet was forced to leave and return to Europe in 1847. Though flourishing, the community struggled to deal with Louis’ departure and their struggle worsened with a sudden separation from Theresa. Theresa was caught in the middle of a jurisdictional dispute about the congregation between the bishops of Philadelphia and Detroit. The bishop of Detroit held Theresa responsible, deposed her as General Superior, and sent her to the Pennsylvania foundation, which later became a separate branch of the congregation. Despite these trials, the new community persisted in its Redemptorist spirit of humility, simplicity, and zeal.

Theresa and Louis’s legacy of courage, peace and service to the poor continues in now three IHM congregations of Monroe, Michigan, Immaculata, Pennsylvania, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Prayer: We pray that we might tap into God’s gifts to each of us of courage, peace, and service, even when it seems the struggles and trials that we bear are too much. We trust with Theresa and Louis, that God will bring all our efforts to good.

“May the same faith and hope and courage of those loved ones who are ‘dwelling now in Light—yet ever near’ inspire us to continue bravely and earnestly the glorious work so nobly begun.” (Mother Theresa McGivney, IHM, November 10, 1945)

Suggested Reading:

• Paths of Daring, Deeds of Hope: Letters by and about Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin by Sister Margaret Gannon, IHM (Published in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1992)
• Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan (Syracuse University Press, 1995)
• Also, be sure to spend time with the icons of Louis and Theresa by Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, iconographer

Join A Nun’s Life Community for a day of events in honor of All Saints! See the schedule for the day’s events in the sidebar to the right. And please consider participating in A Nun’s Life fundraiser going on now through November 9. We need to raise $10,000 for much needed equipment and supplies. See our fundraiser page for more information. You may be eligible to win a brand-new iPad 2!

For many U.S. Catholic sisters and indeed for many Catholics across the U.S. and abroad, the Apostolic Visitation of American Women Religious that began in 2009 turned out to be a graced opportunity to reflect on apostolic, or ministerial, religious life. At the public helm of this reflection has been Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, professor emerita of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She has served as president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and on te board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America. Perhaps her greatest claim to fame, however, is that she is a person deeply grounded in prayer who has given her life to serving God, the Church, and the world. She is a person whom I am proud to call my sister.

At the time of the Apostolic Visitation, Sister Sandra stepped up, offering her reflections on religious life into the public forum. These were certainly not random thoughts and opinions but ones steeped in faith and “in decades of biblical scholarship, religious life scholarship, and lived experience in a congregation.” (Sister Maria Cimperman, OSU, writing about Sister Sandra). These reflections, originally published by National Catholic Reporter, are now collected in the book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church, published by Orbis Books.

A note about the title … We can be a bit sceptical about prophets, especially when one self-appoints oneself as a prophet! The job description for a prophet has never been public acclaim or celebration or even a pat on the back. It is perhaps one of the most arduous of callings that exists. Yet the Church recognizes that some callings are prophetic by nature. One such calling is religious life.

“Religious Life has, from its inception, been recognized not simply as a ‘work force’ in the church but as a prophetic vocation…. For a hundred years before the [Second Vatican] Council a process of institutionalization, standardization, and even domestication muted to the point of virtual silence the specifically prophetic character of the life. Religious began to rediscover that important dimension of their identity as they emerged into public life by their increasing participation in social justice issues in the 1960s and their enthusiastic espousal in the Church of the agenda of Vatican II. Intrinsic to the prophetic vocation within the Judaeo-Christian biblical tradition is the tension between prophecy and institution.” (Prophets in Their Own Country, 22-23)

Though the Apostolic Visitation has faded from the news, the important articulations of who we are as women religious remain as well as the deep connection that women religious have across congregations and with the wider lay Catholic community (women religious are lay people after all). Sister Sandra’s book is a great springboard into deeper reflection on religious life as a gift to the Church and to the world.

Sister Sandra has joined us before at A Nun’s Life Ministry for our In Good Faith program, and she will join us again for a live broadcast on Tuesday next week, November 1, at 9 a.m. CST. We’ll talk with Sister Sandra about the saints as we honor All Saints Day. Join us! The event is one among many others to help kickoff the A Nun’s Life Ministry 1st Annual Fundraiser, and we encourage you to support this ministry that strives to promote religious life and to encourage people in living their calling. Please consider a one-time gift or a monthly gift to support the ministry.

This past weekend Sister Maxine and I had congregational meeting — IHM Sisters and Associates gathered in person and via the Internet to pray and talk about our life together. Coming up in January we will be electing a new leadership team (each religious community does this ever 4-6 years) and so we wanted time together as a community to discern and discuss what will be needed for and from the leaders who will be elected in January.

What amazes me about religious life, and in particular my IHM life, is that we are very intentional about making decisions together, truly discerning how the Spirit is calling us, and being willing to hang in there with each other even when it’s tough. In our elections for a new leadership team, we don’t send out head-hunters or gather up a search committee, or start campaigns and platforms. Instead, true to our life as Catholic sisters and nuns today, we gather the whole community together to pray, discern, discuss, and pray some more.

We believe that community governance, founded on Jesus’ presence in
our midst and on our love and respect for one another, enables us more
fully to live the gospel and to proclaim the reign of God.

“We are committed, therefore, to governance which expresses

• faith in Jesus Christ,
• love of one another,
• respect for the individual,
• participation and collaboration,
• corporate decisions and actions.” (from our IHM Constitutions)

I don’t think I ever would have thought this type of corporate decision-making was possible prior to my becoming a nun. I’d just never seen this kind of thing done before. Seriously — a group of 200+ people coming together, valuing each person’s voice, open to the Spirit of God, and making big decisions together. Whoa!

Granted, we hit bumps in the road on occasion — after all, there’s that little thing I like to call our human condition that enters in! But what never ceases to amaze me is that we hang in there together. We don’t throw up our hands and leave the table. We stick it out, trusting that by the grace of God, we will make it through and end up in a good place — even if we can’t see it at the moment.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for evening prayer and chat at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone) today at aNunsLife.org/live.

Rock star! That’s how National Catholic Reporter described the response of Catholic sisters to Sr. Sandra after her talk last Saturday in Notre Dame, Indiana. Rock on, Sandra!

Sandra’s insights into religious life are music to the ears! Her rendition of religious life past, present and future is one of the clearest and most articulate that I’ve ever heard. The NCR article does a good job of highlighting her key points.

I especially like Sandra’s explanation of why the works of Catholic sisters have changed over time. She describes how the changes in ministry affect the way that Catholic sisters live, what they wear, how they pray, etc. She also offers a compelling vision of religious life for the future – and there will be a future! (She opened her talk with, “Reports of the demise of religious life, to paraphrase Mark Twain, are greatly exaggerated.”)

I appreciate how Sandra links the past to the present, then suggests directions for the future that are already emerging. Here’s an excerpt about that from the NCR article:

Increasingly, religious women have taken their expertise into ministries that, while still in continuity with those of the past and arising directly out of their communities’ charisms, are not ones most Catholics tend to associate with “the Sisters.” Schneiders grouped them into four “clusters”:

• Social justice ministers focused on systemic or structural change, whose “theological glue” tends to be Catholic social teaching. These include social scientists, activists, lawyers, political and community organizers, economists and sociologists, urban farmers and legislators.

• Ministers who work directly with the victims of social injustice or natural disasters, whose theological glue is deep compassion for the suffering Body of Christ. These include chaplains, social workers, counselors, literacy tutors, providers of child care or elder care, managers of low-income housing, those who work in homeless shelters or with victims of torture or sex trafficking.

• Intellectuals, scholars and artists, whose theological glue is faith seeking understanding in our time. These include composers, performers, journalists, writers, teachers and researchers in theology, philosophy and the sciences.

• Ministers who address the thirst for meaning and transcendence, with the theological glue of spiritual nourishment and growth. They work in spirituality centers, campus ministry, spiritual direction, retreats, holistic healing, or as popular writers or speakers on the lecture and workshop circuit.

I encourage you to read the article and to share your responses to it!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community and the nuns for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

She dared to dream. They dared to believe.” The words are from the promo poster for The Mighty Macs. The movie is inspired by the true story of the coach, players, and sisters of Immaculata College. Against great odds, the small college won the U.S. national women’s basketball championship in 1972.

Yesterday, Sister Julie and I dared to drive through Chicago at rush hour to see an advance showing of The Mighty Macs. It was well worth it! We heard about the movie several months ago from our IHM “cousins” in Immaculata, Penn., home of the Mighty Macs. The movie will be in theaters beginning October 21.

During the movie, I was especially interested in the portrayals of the sisters. So I’m offering a few thoughts on the topic in this post. I’ll start by describing the story line.

The Story
The film is set in 1972, at Immaculata College (now University), at the time a small all-women’s college. The school then and now is run by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), of Immaculata, Penn., not far from Philadelphia.

The story begins as 23-year-old Cathy Rush takes on the job of coaching the Mighty Macs. She is newly married to a successful NBA referee. She also is searching for more meaning in her life, which puzzles many people. At that time, most women work in the home, not outside of it, and the roles of wife, homemaker, and mother are closely tied to a woman’s identity and value.

Rush takes the job, despite having no gym and no experience as a head coach. Meanwhile, the college itself is having severe financial problems and is at risk of being sold. Rush dreams of the Mighty Macs being #1 in the country. But the season starts badly as the Macs are thrashed by other teams. Rush, the players, and the nuns have good reason to simply give up, but they don’t. Instead, they draw on the strength and encouragement of each another and together go on to make history.

Some things I like about the movie
The movie reflects the reality that “a vocation” isn’t just for sisters, it’s for all people. Cathy Rush and Sister Sunday, who became the assistant coach, both found their “vocations” as coaches. Being a coach was more than just a job. It was a way for them to find deeper meaning in their own lives and to help others do the same.

One of the scenes I especially like in the movie is when Sister Sunday is in church, praying to God for direction. She doesn’t understand why God brought her to religious life simply to work in the Admissions Office of the college. She prays, “Send me a sign, any sign, as I will be listening for your voice.” Just then, to her annoyance, her prayer is interrupted by the sound of a basketball bouncing against a floor in the nearby makeshift gym. God has a sense of humor.

I also like the way that the sisters supported Rush and the players. The movie conveys a strong message about the power of community. In the movie, when no one else is cheering for the Macs after they’ve been crushed by the opposing team, the nuns are there, in solidarity with the players and coach. That’s what it means to be community – being with one another even when the chips are down. And as the coach and players learn, that’s also what it means to be a team.

The movie also carries a strong feminist message—that society benefits when all people have the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams. In some circles historically, there have been questions as to whether a sister or any woman for that matter, can be Catholic and a feminist at the same time. To that question in the discourse, the movie would say “absolutely YES!” It’s true that in the early 1970s, sisters might not have called themselves feminists. But thousands of sisters in the US and elsewhere have worked for decades on behalf of women—in education, in society, and yes, even in basketball!

Some things I don’t like about the movie
Ok, I understand the whole thing about artistic license for the sake of storytelling. But here’s a few things that raised issues for me.

The depiction of the priest as the one who would determine the fate of Immaculata is just plain wrong. The priest didn’t own Immaculata, nor did he dictate to the nuns how the place should be run. The nuns built Immaculata with their own hard work and wise decision making, and the college endured because of their efforts with others committed to an excellent Catholic education for young adults.

The depiction of the coach is also one I’m still mulling over. In some senses, her role is so powerful that it overshadows the roles of the sisters. The coach’s arrival at a critical do-or-die moment in the college’s history could suggest that she was largely responsible for the transformation of the college. I agree that she was a part of that transformation and a powerful symbol of it– no question! But I’d bet all of Mother Superior’s poker winnings in the movie that the college’s transformation wouldn’t have happened if the nuns weren’t already moving in that direction.

For more info about The Mighty Macs

Although the movie doesn’t come out until Oct. 21, you can read the book it’s based on: O God of Players, by Julie Byrne. There’s also lots of links to movie previews and photos of the Mighty Macs. Here are some for starters!

• The Mighty Macs on Immaculata’s website
• The Mighty Macs movie website
• The Mighty Macs on the Internet Movie Database

I’d love to hear your comments and questions about the images of Catholic sisters that you see in the promotional materials for The Mighty Macs. Please share them by writing in the comment box below.

Today is one of IHM Congregational Feast Days … Saint Alphonsus of Liguori. We’ve invited our IHM Sister and A Nun’s Life friend Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, to reflect with us on the life of this saint.

Alphonsus Liguori, the Saint we honor today: Nobleman, Lawyer, Hospital Minister, Preacher of Missions, Chaplain, Artist, Musician, Poet, Man of Letters, Mystic, Spiritual Director, Founder, Friend of the Poor, Moral Theologian, Superior General, Bishop, Saint and Doctor of the Church.  Obviously, Alphonsus was a very gifted person about whom each of us might want to know more.

Saint Alphonsus’ life extended through most of the eighteenth century (1696-1787).  Basically, he was committed to preaching missions, along with the Redemptorist Order that he founded, among the abandoned rural poor around Naples, Italy.

There is so much to say about this great man but in this reflection, I want to emphasize his friendship with the poor, who in turn befriended him leading him to a deep and transforming union with God.

“It is evident that fidelity to the promptings of the Spirit was what led St. Alphonsus to leave his world in order to assume that of the poor and most abandoned, just as it is fidelity to that same Spirit that has led some religious to choose to live among, with, for and out of the world of the poor. They embrace the physical, geographic, and human situation of the poor as a focus of their encounter with God.”

~ Jorge Colon Leon CSsR

In this context, says, Father Leon, the poor are seen as a theophany, for in them the transcendent God makes himself present, causing us to question our bourgeois attitudes, calling us to consider whether our ministry choices-personal, community, or worldwide are really in line with call of the Gospel. There is a strong link, insists Kevin Dowling, CSsR, between allowing ourselves to be called by the poor or evangelized by the poor and explicit, prophetic and liberating proclamation of the Gospel to the poor.

My own IHM congregation of Monroe, Michigan was founded by a Redemptorist priest, Father Louis Gillet CSsR.  His zeal for poor, educationally deprived girls challenged him to establish a Catholic school in 1845 on the River Raisin frontier in Monroe.  That school still exists today in the form of a consolidation referred to St. Mary Catholic Central.

But more than beginning a school for poor girls, Fr. Gillet, needed women religious to staff this school, so he thought, if I can’t find them, I will make them.  Thus, began the establishment of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1945.  Our charism explicitly calls us to serve the most abandoned wherever we find them.

So I ask myself and you, the reader, to ponder: In the light of the Gospel, in what ways can I be involved in action to break down the sense of isolation and alienation among the poor and marginalized in my area or situation?  How can I actively participate in poor people’s organizations and movements which focus on economic and political structures and systems? How can I personally live in unity with the poor from the faith perspective that we are one community in Christ? How can the Nunslife community as a group express some form of solidarity with the poor and marginalized?

The following is a link to all the 111 writings of St. Alphonsus which are available to the reader at no cost.  Though the eighteen century language might not be the readers’ style, the beauty of his words and mystical expressions of his deep love for God is quite profound.  Celebrate this great feast and treat yourself to some beautiful writings of a very talented and great saint.

~ Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM

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The Sisters are back in the NL Studio! Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone)

Welcome to a special ENCORE PRESENTATION of Ask Sister podcast. The nuns are in nunly meetings all week but wanted to be sure you still had an opportunity to listen to an Ask Sister podcast. This is one of our favorite ones with special guest Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center.

As you listen to this podcast, jot down your questions and insights and then head on over to the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and start a conversation! Go for it!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

In this podcast episode, we chatted about the “Examen Prayer”, God and free will, the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’, and what to do when you don’t feel connected with God.

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Had a fantastic podcast last night with my partner-in-nunhood, Sister Maxine. The questions that folks asked us on Ask Sister (recording will be up this weekend) were fabulous and we got into some very good conversations. What I love most is the feeling of tapping in to what I love about being a Catholic sister. Conversations like the one last night ignite all these ideas and memories and hopes and feelings of goodness — and i am in awe over how God has taken me in and helped me to find a way of life that fits me — and totally delights me!

There are stories and memories in our IHM tradition that become like landmarks in our life. I was reminded of a couple of them during the podcast that were and continue to be formative in my life. I think we each have landmarks — in our IHM life, we hold many of them in common, just like a family might have landmarks in their collective life. What I’m amazed at is that when I stumble upon those landmarks, they still have the power to make present, as it were, the reality signified — kind of sacramental in a way. These IHM landmarks help me tap into my own self, and into our life of simplicity, humility, and zeal.

What a terrific morning we had yesterday! Sister Julie and I were in downtown Chicago for breakfast with Sarah Jindra, Lisa Labuz, and Melba Lara, of WBEZ Chicago Public Media. Sarah is the traffic reporter for WBEZ, and Lisa and Melba are the on-air folks in the early morning and in the afternoon.

The breakfast was part of a fund-raiser that Sarah was involved in for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The fund-raiser was incredibly successful. The money will help in the cause against blood cancers. The fund-raiser included an auction for the breakfast with Sarah, Lisa and Melba. A dear friend who knows that Sister Julie and I adore WBEZ placed the winning bid and offered us the breakfast prize!

We met at the WBEZ studio on Navy Pier, then headed to The Yolk for breakfast. As we talked over a really good meal (God bless red skin potates), Sister Julie and I were deeply impressed with the way they described their work. For example, they talked about how, before going on-air, they have to be able to set aside the distractions of their day so as to be fully present to listeners.

To my ears, it sounds like a great spiritual practice! Being present to ourselves and others in a world that constantly tugs at our attention is no small feat! It also reminds me that our ministries affect not only others, but that they also shape and transform ourselves. Blessings to Sarah, Lisa, and Melba for their presence and their service!

Sister Theresa Coulter, IHM

Nothing can ever really take the edge off of the reality of death. Life is, and then it is not. Theresa is with us, and then one Sunday night, she is no longer here the way we have always known and loved her.

There is a song in our IHM tradition that speaks of our sisters who have died as “dwelling now in light, yet ever near.” In times like this, I have to trust the wisdom of my community and of my faith tradition because my plain old human emotions are not all that jubilant. I rather liked Theresa dwelling here and now. I loved her gentle spirit, determination, and courage to speak the truth. I like the Communion of Saints that are here with me, that I can rub shoulders with, revel in God’s mystery with, and share the bond of sisterhood with.

At the same time, I am a woman fiercely of the resurrection. I believe, as we read in yesterday’s Gospel, that God indeed desires peace for us, courage in times of challenge, and trust that God has already conquered the world! (John 16:33) For me, that conquering business does not mean overpowering the world, crushing it; rather it means that in all things — even persecution, suffering, and death — God is with us and has the final word. What is that word? Well, I think about Theresa, and I think of one word. Love.

Here in the United States, we celebrate the national holiday of Memorial day. Wrote former president Bill Clinton in a memo on the White House Program for the National Moment of Remembrance,

“Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. While we should honor these heroes every day for the profound contribution they have made to securing our Nation’s freedom, we should honor them especially on Memorial Day.”

Let us also remember those women and men who have pursued and died for peace, justice, and freedom. I think of people like Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was killed because of her work with and on behalf of the people of Brazil; and Daniel Pearl, an American journalist writing for the Wall Street Journal who strove to build “bridges between diverse cultures” and who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists. I am also reminded of my own nun, Sister John Clement Hungerman, IHM, a remarkable woman and educator.

On this day of remembering, please add  the names of others who have given their life and their death to the pursuit of peace, justice, and freedom … and then join us tonight for a litany of heroes and martyrs during our prayer podcast at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

AS063 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Kathie Budesky. Topics include: the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God, and more!

This episode was broadcast live from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, with an in-house audience! Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center, joined Sister Maxine and Sister Julie on air.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can you talk more about the “Examen Prayer”? What is it? How do you use it/apply it?
• How do we make sense of God and free will?
• What is the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’?
• What do you do when you don’t feel connected with God as usual?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Here in the Chicago area, we’re getting snow, snow, and more snow! Plus the winds are whipping around, so that when I look out the window, it’s like looking at a snow-globe that’s just been shaken. I’m not real fond of snow, but I love to engage with nature. So this morning, which BTW is World Day for Consecrated Life, I put on a ton of warm clothes and went outside with Sister Julie.

If there are religious sisters, brothers, priests or other consecrated persons who have been an important part of your life, we’d love to hear about them! Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Ever have the experience of looking for something, like car keys or a cell phone, just to find that it’s right before your eyes? Sometimes vocations are like that.

Case in point—my friend, Nancy Lee Smith, IHM.  Sister Nancy began working full-time as an iconographer several years ago (saintjosephstudio.com). Even as she began creating wonderful icons, when people asked about her ministry, she tended to reply, “I do artwork.”

She vividly recalls the day that changed. It was at a local gallery showing,and her works were among those displayed. “I looked around and suddenly realized that I don’t just do artwork, I am an artist.” It was a moment when “doing” and “being” came together. She clearly understood that she was already living her vocation as an artist.

Sister Nancy’s story reminds me that a vocation isn’t just “what we do,” it’s also who we are. Her story reminds me that God is always at work in our lives, and sometimes it just takes awhile for us to see it clearly.

Have you had an “ah-ha” vocational moment, and how did you respond? I’d love to hear your story! Please share it by writing in the comment box below.

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This week is National Vocation Awareness Week. The Sisters will be praying daily for those who are discerning a vocation as well as taking your prayer requests. Join us at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

This morning, I tried to imagine a life free from sin. It was a lot harder than I expected.

My ponderings were inspired by today’s feast day, the Immaculate Conception of Mary. According to Catholic doctrine, from the first moment of Mary’s existence, God preserved her from original sin and filled her with grace. Doctrine tells us that Mary remained sinless throughout her life.

What caused my difficulty was that I equated a sinless life with a perfect life. After all, if I never sinned, wouldn’t my life be perfect? Even if the people around me weren’t perfect, shouldn’t sinlessness protect me, so that stuff like anger or violence or greed wouldn’t impinge upon my perfect life?

Then I thought about Mary. She was sinless, yet her life was far from perfect. At one point, Mary faced the prospect of being single mom in a culture that looked down on unmarried mothers. When she was ready to give birth, she and Joseph were on the road, not with family who could help with the birth and the new baby. Her son Jesus was a great guy, but the ups and downs of his life greatly affected Mary, and she stayed with him through it all. Despite her sinlessness, Mary was one of us – a person who experienced joy and sorry, who cared for her family and neighbors, and who loved deeply.

So, maybe a sinless life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not that I have to worry about it. Sorta like water under the bridge on that one. But Mary shows me that what matters is not a sinless or a perfect life. What matters is the fullness of life—the ability to embrace my own humanity and that of others, with all its eccentricities, joys, weaknesses, and challenges.

What message does Mary have for you today? Happy Feast Day!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The Rocky Mountains -- photo from a trip I took with my siblings

During our IHM conference (prayer, socializing, planning, contemplative dialogue, decision-making) this past weekend, there was an awesome feeling of being “in sync” with one another and with the Spirit of God. Now it wasn’t always easy or pretty, but we were all committed to being present to one another and the common good of our IHM community and IHM mission, so we hung in there within one another. At the end of the conference, one of my IHM Sisters mentioned how good the meeting was and how challenging it would be to walk back into everyday life with the phone ringing off the hook, ministerial responsibilities, paying the electrical bill, wrangling email, etc.

As I sit here surrounded by piles of “stuff to do” and an email inbox threatening to hijack my computer, I too wonder how to go from spiritual highs “back” to everyday life. And even as I’m writing this, I had to edit and put the word “back” into quotation marks because I realized as I wrote it that that’s actually one of the keys to sifting through this. That key is that we don’t really go “back” nor is everyday life somehow separate from or lower than the so-called spiritual “highs”.

Once we’ve had that insight, that moment of clarity, that feeling of “in sync”, we are forever transformed, even if it doesn’t feel that way, even if the very next moment we have to clean the cat’s litter box. We are transformed. And in the stuff of everyday life, in the seemingly unspiritual moments, that experience of “spiritual high” becomes incarnate once again … and gives rise to other moments.

Still, it’s never easy to re-embrace ordinary life. But that’s where life truly is, that’s the stuff that makes spiritual highs possible.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Today we have a special blog post written by our Sister Josephine Sferrella, IHM. Sister Josephine wrote this last summer and graciously gave us permission to publish it here.

For 164 years, we have had one place-which we call home: our motherhouse at 610 West Elm Avenue. It is here where most of us were introduced to the religious life as Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is here that the foundations of our uniqueness as IHMs were planted, nourished and nurtured. It is here where we returned every summer (until the early 70s); it is here we come for conferences, learning seminars, congregational updates, meetings, assemblies and chapters. It is home for our major celebrations; especially our jubilees, anniversaries, and funerals.

It is a place of new beginnings when a sister makes her first vows and it is a place of retirement when one no longer can actively minister. It is the place where we make our first commitment and it is the final resting place when God calls us “home”. It is the intangible bonds which have developed over the years, the spirit underlying the relationships which define our uniqueness. Nothing can replace these relationships. What is it that makes this “home?” for me?

What is the strong link that binds me to “Home”?

• It is rising each morning knowing that in a short while our family meets together around the table, the altar in our simple but elegant chapel for morning Liturgy or the Eucharistic Celebration. Whether I’m confined to my room using in-house channel 11 or brought down in my wheel chair, walk with a walker, and drive myself with a mobile cart or walk unassisted I actually physically, participate with all our sisters in what is one of the essential parts of our religious life.”Together we know Jesus Christ in the breaking of the bread and in sharing the cup of salvation. We believe that where two or three of us are gathered in his name, Jesus is in our midst and that whatever we ask in his name he will give us.” (SSIHM Constitutions Chapter 3 Art. 20)

• It is in this place where we come together for communal evening prayers. It is here where I can sit quietly in the Presence of God uniting my prayers with the needs of the entire global world. But I am not alone; everywhere around me are sisters affiliated with me in an inimitable, specific covenant. “Like Jesus, who prayed-in solitude-in the midst of action, and-in public gatherings of his people, we promise to be faithful to personal and communal prayer.“(SSIHM Constitutions Chapter 4 Art. 32)

• It is here where the Eucharist is central to our lives; where the sacraments of reconciliation and anointing are celebrated communally; where we extend our times of prayer. The link among us is situated in the call we all answered in entering this congregation. This relationship is real but intangible embedded in spirituality but lived in practicality.

This Home is indeed sacred space for me: it is not just brick and mortar but rather the vitality which the various spaces imbibe from the relationships that formed our history, enhance our present and gives us courage to move into the future.

Its bricks remind me of the sacrifices our first sisters made and so many of us continue to make in order to ensure we would have a home. Whether I walk slowly through the cloister leading to the dining rooms or to the chapel or the cloister leading to health care or residents’ rooms it is this kinship which enables me to be.

The windows of this dwelling place bring in the light of God’s external beauty-landscape — flowers, bushes, trees planted and nurtured by the loving hands of many of my sisters — where each segment of the land recalls a blessed piece of IHM history in time and space.

The various wings of the building make real for me my life as a member of this religious family:

• the community room where relationships begun earlier now enable us to discuss our lives as women religious; our ministries; or come together to socialize when we celebrate jubilees of 75, 60, 50 and 25 years of service. The community room– a hallowed area in which we have been called to make serious decisions as a family — where each of us has actively entered into these life giving processes. This place is a hub— for fun times like card games or karaoke; even a tailgate party-another opportunity to meet with my sisters regardless of walkers, wheel chairs, scooters and or canes; for reflective times when we gather for contemplative prayer, yearly retreats or remembering those who died during the past year. Again entering into a close alliance forming the “I’ into the “we” a vital source of synergy.

• the library where our minds are fed with knowledge needed to carry out ministerial activities but more so where the soul finds great theological and spiritual resources–a quiet place to catch up on the news, locally and nationally; a book mobile that comes to my room if I’m not able to get to the Reading Room or the stacks — and if I wish, a time to be an active member of a book club — And it is all mine for the asking. Thus, the lifelong learning process begun in early years gels into savoring wisdom and expanding mental acuity even as the aging process shows its signs.

• the Health Care Center where so many of our elderly sisters reside — what sacredness is felt as one walks this cloister — knowing here live those who no longer can be active among us but are with us physically and spiritually, whose active life was an asset, gift to community and now is dependent on family, whose countenance glows when another sister visits, stops in to pray with or helps with reading or addressing envelopes … or simply reminisces days of yore —whatever is needed is there at the hands of another sister family member—Lovingly and graciously—anytime of the week, day or night—ties of a distinctive union spanning time and age ever increasing our relationships —”we are drawn together in community by Jesus Christ … ” (SSIHM Constitutions Chapter 3 Art 18.)

• the Health Care Center where I know I will be cared for—no matter how incapacitated I’ll be, I’ll never be away from family—I’II never be alone. That even though I receive the best of care from staff, one thing I’m certain—I can always be physically present to the community and to the activities I have committed myself as a religious member of this congregation whether it be via channel 11 and/or 12 or having an aide wheel me to the area of the specific activities. My sisters will be there waiting for me to enter into the event—or in many cases bring the event to me. Again, the ever present relationship-connectedness which no one can ever take from me for “The love of Jesus Christ unites us in community … ” (SSIHM Constitutions Chapter 1, Art 1)

• the dining rooms where we meet for meals several times a day; an opportunity for me to be with my sisters-my family-where I can be part of a camaraderie that is integral to a family’s life and energy. Whether it is in the main dining rooms or the dining areas in Health Care, sisters find life in discussions, reminiscing, reflecting, sharing today and yesterdays — in laughter or in somber wistfulness or in compassionate sorrow. Kindred souls empathize, intimately allied in vision and mission as we continue to forge vibrant forces within this community — this one of a kind family — in my home, our home.

This home is indeed sacred space for me:

• Where else can I hear the resounding peals of our chapel bells calling us to prayer at noon and at six pm every day, a united family heeding the call of Jesus to be who we are and do what we do best?

• Where else can I seek the willing hands, hearts and counsel of other sisters in pastoral care or close sister friends who understand the queries, the fears and joys I experience as a religious woman?

• Who can count the sense of belonging whenever I encounter a sister in hallowed cloisters narrating sacred history of who we are together by just being together?

• Who can measure the sense of security, love and affirmation that envelopes your very being as sisters remember your birthday with a shaky scrawling signature on a homemade card, or greeted by a great big smile, even at times belting out the happy birthday tune wherever and whenever one is met?

• Who can describe the underlying ‘esprit de corps’ that melds us as family in a ‘home’ that breathes the very spirit of our founders, which reminds us in every nook and cranny of the commitment we made living our life of vows within community (SSIHM Constitution Chapter 1 Art.4)?

• Where else will I find the loving attention of my sisters sitting with me as I begin my last journey of dying; no matter how long the process knowing that their physical comfort and encouragement and powerful prayers are with me even to the last?

• Or who can ignore the sense of “coming home” when we meet the coffined body of a sister as she is wheeled into our front foyer and met by all her sisters with a hymn of Thanksgiving and Praise for who she was among us, raising our hands in blessing as she enters into her ‘final home with God’? What more fitting manner to celebrate the end of one’s physical journey as sister among sisters gathered around the table in our magnificent chapel to celebrate the Eucharist, rejoicing in the shared gifts of a family member who has gone home to God?

Home is indeed a sacred place “where each lives for the other and all live for God”.

Happy IHM Founders Day. Since our congregation’s founding in 1845, the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan have been committed to issues of justice, peace and sustainability. This commitment is rooted in the mission of our founders Louis Florent Gillet and Theresa Maxis Duchemin to respond to the world’s most pressing needs.

In order to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, the IHM community promotes peace and non-violence; solidarity with the materially poor; economic justice and the development of an ecological consciousness.

Our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office has created a short video highlighting how IHMs are working in these areas. We invite you to watch this video and to share the link with your friends. The video is on YouTube and also on our IHM website.

We also encourage you explore our Justice Peace and Sustainability pages on the IHM website. There you will find a variety of pages on topics ranging from Haiti to human trafficking, climate change to the consistent ethic of life.  Each page includes a description of the issue, stories of IHMs in action, prayer materials, resources and recommended actions you can take to act in solidarity with IHM Sisters and Associates.

Many thanks to Sarah and Nancy in our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office for their care and ministry!

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Read the past 4 years of IHM Founders Day posts at aNunsLife.org!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS045 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: philosophy and theology, gifts for nuns, God active in our thoughts, choosing a religious community, responding to the call of God, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can all these thoughts I’m having really be an invitation from God?
• Which religious community is for me?
• Why did you want to become a nun? Why did you choose IHM as you community?
• What is an appropriate gift to a nun celebrating her diamond jubilee?
• Why do some Catholics not like the philosophers Kant and Descartes?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

How times change! I found it interesting to read through the “horarium” (the hourly schedule for sisters) that was used early in IHM religious life. It reflects a time in history when the main purpose of all religious life around the world was to develop personal holiness. Service to others was a “secondary” purpose. But times—and theology—change. In the 1950s and 1960s, service to others was understood as not being somehow separate from holiness, but a path for holiness.

If you were a novice with the IHMs in 1902, here’s what your day would look like!

IHM sisters performing their “charges” – serving meals in the sisters’ infirmary

1902 IHM Novitiate Directory

[Sisters arose to the sound of the bell at 5:00 a.m.]

As good order is the life of a well regulated Institute, the Sisters shall make it their duty to observe most strictly the following regulations. They shall rise in the morning at the first sound of the bell, without in the least giving way to sloth, thinking that it is God who calls them. Entertaining themselves with holy thoughts, they shall dress with greatest modesty. Afterwards, make the sign of the cross, and recite the usual morning prayers, offering to God all the actions of the day. Then, prostrate, they shall say three Aves and ask her blessing while in spirit kissing her hand. And having kissed the floor, before and after the three Aves, they shall kneel and with arms extended, say one Pater and Ave in honor of their yearly Patron.

Assemble in the chapel for meditation
Assist at Holy Mass
Breakfast
Manual work/study until 11:45
Particular examen [of conscience]
12:00 (in silence) go to dinner
Te Deum in Chapel after dinner
After Chapel, repair to refectory, kitchen, or other departments for charges [daily chores]
After these charges, recreation
Study/manual labor from 1:30-3:00
3:00 Spiritual reading (from a book selected by the Novice Mistress)
3:30 One-third of the rosary
4:00 Free time
4:30 Visit to the Blessed Sacrament and the BVM
5:00 Study or instructions
6:00 Supper, followed by recreation
8:00 Silence
8:30 Night prayers
9:30 Last signal shall be given, when all unnecessary lights shall be extinguished and each Sister is strictly commanded to be in bed.

Source: Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, published by Syracuse University Press, 1997. Photo: page 192.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Here in the midwestern United States we are having one of the best Fall seasons I can remember. The colors of the leaves on the maples are spectacular. It is a paradise of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns.

All of the vibrant colors are a reminder to me that the earth is God’s Good Creation, and that we are part of if – we are part of that inherently good gift of life in all its variety.

The southeastern corner of Michigan, where the Motherhouse is located, is one of my favorite Fall color places. Here’s a photo I took the other week at our Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan.

What’s Fall look like in your area of the world? I’d love to see your photos! If you have a Facebook page with Fall photos, you can put a link to it in the comment box below. We’ll then display your photo too!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

A favorite IHM custom of mine is the prayers of the faithful during Mass during which time we remember by name our sisters who have died on or near that day. The name of the sister is read along with the year that she died. This custom reflects a profound sense that are sisters who have died are still truly with us albeit in a new way. As an IHM community, we trust in their love and prayers as we continue God’s mission as IHM sisters.

I was thinking about this custom because today we have a long list of saints to celebrate. We celebrate not only the memory of them and how they lived the Gospel, but we also celebrate how they continue to be with us, encouraging us on our journey, praying with and for us.

We are blessed to have 6 new saints in our midst! On October 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI canonized the following women and men:

• Saint Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), an Australian religious and first Australian saint
• Saint André Bessette (1845-1937), a Canadian religious
• Saint Stanislao Soltys (1433- 1489), a Polish religious
• Saint Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (1845- 1912), a Spanish religious
• Saint Giulia Salzano (1846- 1929), an Italian religious
• Saint Battisat da Varano (1458- 1524), an Italian religious

In addition to these newly minted saints, we celebrate today the feast day of the North American Martyrs, Jesuit missionaries who were martyred in the 17th century.

• Saint John de Brébeuf (1649)
• Saint Noël Chabanel (1649)
• Saint Antoine Daniel (1648)
• Saint Charles Garnier (1649)
• Saint René Goupil (1642)
• Saint Isaac Jogues (1646)
• Saint John de Lalande (1646)
• Saint Gabriel Lalemant (1649)

We give thanks for all those saints (canonized or not) who have gone before us and who continue to be with us on our journey.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

In the course of my research the other day, I came upon some material from the IHM’s 1902 Novitiate Directory. Sisters who were novices, as well as those who were finally professed, arose each day at 5:00 a.m. to the sound of a bell.

“Rise in the morning at the first sound of the bell, without in the least giving way to sloth, thinking that it is God who calls them.”

"Gabriel I" -- the bell in use from 1868 to 1939 at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. The ringing of the bell called sisters to begin their day.

The bell is an interesting way to image the voice of God. The bell imagery makes me think about the sounds that I hear in everyday life, and whether I associate any of them with the voice of God, calling me forth in service to Creation. One sound I hear a lot of is car traffic, because we live near a busy street. I don’t think of that as the voice of God, although I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. A sound I do associate with God’s voice is the quiet of the early morning, around 5:30 a.m. It’s not total silence – birds are singing, a breeze stirs the leaves of the nearby maples, a few tree frogs are murmuring. And when I hear God’s voice in these sounds, I arise and welcome the day.

How do you hear God’s call in the sounds of your everyday life?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS037 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on August 13, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: lies, sins, and truth; women Doctors of the Church; having a religious life without being a nun; hanging out with the IHM Sisters, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• If a nun or a sister goes along with what she knows to be a lie, what is her sin?
• How does a person become a Doctor of the Church and why are there so few women recognized as Doctors of the Church?
• If it’s not possible for me to become a nun, what kind of religious life can I have other than being part of my church choir and handbell chorus and attending Mass regularly?
• Can you tell us about your weekend at the IHM Motherhouse for Jubilee and Final Profession?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

A great story from our IHM Community in IHM Archives Notes v1.4 (August 2010).

Jerome Van Develde, a keen observer of human nature, on one occasion characterized the pickers. “The postulants eat, the professed talk, and the novices work!” (Continuum 9-6-1991)

Jerome Van Develde, an IHM employee and friend for a lifetime, supervised the gardens/farm on the back of the IHM campus.

Often during the summers when hundreds of IHM Sisters were “home” in Monroe over the summer break, Jerome would send the message that the strawberries, currents, apples, cherries, or beans, were ready to be picked.

Then, after supper, a long line of sisters stretched all along the lane going back to Stewart Road could be seen walking out to the designated picking areas; and then later, often around 8:30, the same line could be seen headed back to their residences at the Academy, Motherhouse or Hall of the Divine Child.

Flatbed trucks, loaded with the harvested crops testified to fruits of the evening’s work.

"The Long Blue Line" of IHMs picking strawberries

During those years, there was a popular film about life at the U.S. Army’s academy, West Point, where the cadets wore grey uniforms. It was called, The Long Gray Line.

More than once, an observer of the sisters going to and from their picking chores referred to their traipse as that of “The Long Blue Line.”

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Although I would have loved working side by side with my sisters and with the earth, I’m pretty sure I would have been a wilting flower on a day like today (hot and humid here in Chicago area). Still, I absolutely love how our IHM community has been and continues to be “down-to-earth” both literally and figuratively!

Does your religious community or one close to your heart have a similar history? What does this say to you about the community, it’s mission and way of being with God?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Sister Julie and I have finally caught our breath after last week’s whirlwind of meetings and festivities at the IHM Motherhouse. The grand finale of the week was the profession of final vows of Sister Maria Antonia Aranda Diaz, who lives in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. During the ceremony, Maria Antonia committed herself to “poverty, chastity and obedience for the rest of my life” (these words are often accompanied by a deep breath…).

The reading at the ceremony was from Luke 4, in which Jesus read the words of the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of our God is upon me: because the Most High has anointed me
to bring Good News to those who are poor.
God has sent me to proclaim liberty to those held captive,
recovery of sight to those who are blind,
and release to those in prison—
to proclaim the year of our God’s favor.

The words were very fitting for Sister Maria Antonia. Living out the example of Jesus, she brings Good News to some of the most vulnerable citizens of Juarez through her ministry. She serves in Paso del Norte Human Rights Center, which helps to protect the rights and safety of women and children who are confronted by violence.

In the next couple of days, Sister Julie and I will post photos of Sister Maria Antonia’s profession ceremony on the A Nun’s Life Facebook page. In the meantime, we continue to celebrate her commitment and her life among us as our IHM sister y hermana!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

It is Wednesday morning and I am very, very tired! Sister Maxine and I have been at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, for all of last week through the weekend — and what a celebration it was! We had Mission Unit meetings (clusters of about 12-20 IHM sisters and associates), retreat, talks by Father Tony Gittins, CSSp, Ask Sister special edition podcast from the Motherhouse, visitors from A Nun’s Life community in person, festive meals, prayer in solitude and in solidarity, cookies from Cakes by Stephanie (to die for), Jubilee Eucharistic liturgy and celebration, and the final profession of vows of nuestra IHM hermana Maria Antonia Aranda Diaz, IHM (more on her profession mañana).

It was truly a graced time, but I for one am exhausted! But it is a good exhaustion, one that reminds me that living life to the fullest, savoring every moment, working and praying and celebrating together — these all are good things that reflect who we are and whose we are.

For today, I’m going to catch up on some work and emails and sleep — but with lots of inspirations, ideas, and memories to accompany me!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS036 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 30, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Special IHM Sisters Edition. Topics include: vocation stories, prayer and relating with God, ministry, and responses to questions from listeners.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

This is a SPECIAL EDITION episode as we broadcasted live from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. We were joined on air by two of our sisters — Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM,  Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College, and Sister Katherine Collard, IHM, Director of Liturgy & Adult Faith Formation at Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. Plus you’ll hear the live studio audience of IHM Sisters and Associates and some folks from A Nun’s Life community who were visiting.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Could you each tell us a little about your ministry?
• When did you first think you might want to be a nun?
• What do you find helpful in your prayer life? What might you recommend to others?
• Why does God feel so distant sometimes?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

The IHM Community has been meeting since yesterday and we’ve been privileged to have with us Father Anthony Gittins, CSSp, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans).

Gittins is a professor of mission and culture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois. For the past twenty-five years he has with and among homeless women on the streets of Chicago and in a shelter. For seven of those years he was part of Genesis House – a community where women struggle to escape from prostitution (from CTU website).

Here are a few of my thoughts from the presentations (any inconsistencies are mine, not Gittins):

MISSION. Gittins has been talking about mission and what it means to today. He started off by saying that mission is not what we do, it’s not even what the church does … mission is what GOD does. So it can be difficult to define “mission” exactly because it is caught up in the mystery of the triune God which we can never really fully comprehend or explain.

EVANGELIZATION. Evangelization is often connected with mission but again, it’s neither ours nor the church’s. Evangelization is the work of Jesus Christ. This is more than mere proclamation. Jesus’ evangelization certainly included proclaiming the Good News but to really understand what evangelization means, we have to look at the WHOLE of Jesus’ life. So let’s look at what Jesus does … he walks around, talks with people, receives from others, serves, asks questions, teaches, cries, rejoices. In all of these things Jesus evangelizes.

DISCIPLESHIP. So what are we to do if mission belongs to the Trinity and evangelization belongs to Jesus? Our job is discipleship. All we can do (and all is everything) is learn from Jesus, learn from what Jesus does. We cannot just pick one or two things of that Jesus did and say it’s mission — that’s just making up our own thing. We are called to learn from Jesus’ whole life. “If you want to be my disciple you have to do it my way; I’ll show you how; walk around with me day by day.”

Gittins says that we do not have a mission, but that God’s mission has us. What does this mean for you?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The International AIDS Conference is underway in Vienna this week. Over 20,000 people from more than 180 countries are there. Some of the news from the conference is very encouraging, such as the report about a new gel that shows great promise for protecting against HIV.

AIDS activist and singer (one of my favs) Annie Lennox calls funding for AIDS research a “human rights issue.” See http://www.annielennox.com

The study was conducted among South African women by two South African researchers. South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world. The Wall Street Journal said that the gel is unique in that “it is the first time an HIV-prevention method controlled by women, who bear the brunt of the epidemic in Africa, has been shown to work.” There’s still a lot of clinical work to be done in regard to the gel, and hopefully it will be successful. If it is, women in South Africa and around the world will be better able to protect their own health.

In the meantime, I continue to pray for the people at the conference who are working to end the stigma and the suffering of HIV/AIDS. I also pray for those who are directly affected by HIV/AIDS – people who have AIDS, their families and loved ones, their communities.

I especially keep in mind my friend Tim, who died of AIDS several years ago. May he rest in peace. Please mention other people affected by AIDS for whom you’d like to pray.

For prayer and reflection resources about HIV/AIDS please see the website of my IHM Sisters.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS031 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 25, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: is Mary a mere saint? is being a nun a waste of time? spiritual v. religious? am I called or not? the vocation story of Sister Maxine, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Does the Catholic Church consider Mary a mere saint?
• Have you ever felt that being a sister you wasted your time? Have you ever thought that you cheated yourself?
• Is it okay to be spiritual but not religious?
• How do you know if you are called and that it is not just an idea of yours?
• What is Sister Maxine’s vocation story? How did she discern her calling to become an IHM sister?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

My Nun’s Life
by Sister Pat Aseltyne, IHM

Greetings from my “nun’s life”, a life that has almost completed the journey (65 years of Vowed Commitment). Sister Julie and I belong to the same IHM Community. Sometimes we think that we must be at total peace before we can believe that the Spirit is with us. If this were so I would not be completing this amazing nun’s life journey.

My life has carried me far and near; from Monroe County, Michigan, where my father happened to have grown up to Chicago, Washington D.C., and back to Michigan. The best part of the journey has been relating to so many people in so many ways — as a teacher, a school principal, a counselor, and now as coordinator of an outreach program.

At present, I live and minister in Houston, Texas. My worship place is Rice University Catholic Student Chapel. My ministry place is with a small agency called Casa de Esperanza de los Niños (House of Hope for little children). The people I meet here are from economic extremes; the rich and the poor and the Casa staff in between. As we touch one another’s lives we get that feeling of wanting to become a part of life together. So, those who have an over abundance, wish to help us to help others who are under nourished in so many material ways. Most of the poor among us seem to have an inside track to the Heart of God where they find so much comfort in their dire circumstances.

The rich wish to connect with me because my life takes me into the midst of poverty; usually to places where most people do not wish to go. They know that I know who the needy are. The poor wish to connect with me because they know that I care about them and so there is a mutual love that inspires courage. I find it difficult to put this into words because the truth is so deep in our souls once we experience this mutual desire to see one another as equals – each in need of something that the other has and wishes to share.

As I think back on joys and struggles in life I realize the place of the Spirit. Most meaningful to me has always been Jesus’ word that he would send His Spirit to nourish our Spirit. Though we may seem old to others, we are still young in Spirit. I do have a quandary about why others expect us “oldsters” to slow down just because we keep adding numbers to our age. Remember the song, “Young at Heart”? That is exactly how most of us want to be perceived. So, please keep this in mind when you meet up with someone who looks like they are a little “withery” or “dithery” in mind or body or both.

What do you hear in Sister Pat’s words that can apply in your own life? What Word from Jesus or one of the saints or holy people of God nourishes you, inspires you?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

You may notice that many Catholic sisters and nuns have the name “Mary” included in some form in their religious name. In a recent edition of our IHM Archives News (May 2010), our intrepid archivist Donna Westley looked at this custom in the IHM tradition. (Today we use our baptismal names as our religious names so “Mary” or its derivations are present only if it was originally part of one’s baptismal name). Here’s some of that article along with additional details I gleaned from my email conversation with Donna.

Why take on a religious name? A new name in religion signified a commitment to a new way of life. For more info, check out our earlier blog post responding to Lou’s question What is the reasoning behind a nun or sister choosing a religious name?

Why the name “Mary”? Our IHM Congregation has a special devotion to Mary which has manifest itself in various ways throughout our history up to today. Co-founder Father Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR wrote about our special relationship with Mary in the original IHM Rule of Life: “The principal Patroness of the Institute will be the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Immaculate, whose feast is celebrated the eighth of December.” The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had just been issued in 1854, just 9 years after our congregation’s founding.

The earliest commentary on the constitutions and customs that Donna found was written by Mother Gertrude Gerretsen (1864-1869). She writes:

“Devotion to the Mother of God has always been dear to religious persons. But as this congregation is immediately under her protection and as she is (under God) its principal protectress, the sisters shall always have the warmest and most affectionate devotion to her; regarding her in a special manner as their Mother and the great model they are obliged to imitate, that by her intercession and under her powerful protection they may be enabled to fulfill the obligations of this holy Institute and implant Jesus Christ in the hearts of the children they are charged to instruct.”

Mother Gertrude goes on in detail about specific devotions: rosary, novenas, celebration of feasts, the month of May, etc.

What was the Sister Mary custom with IHM Sisters? The name of Mary, although not always spoken or written at the beginning of our religious names, was always formally there until 1920.

Indeed, a page in co-founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin’s Notes Regarding the Foundation supports the longstanding nature of this practice. Referring to receptions and professions, she says.

“I will now give the religious names of those 12 Sisters: Igidius, Johanna, Gerard, Liguori, Agnes, Anthony, Ignatius, Xavier, Stanislas, Colette, Gertrude, Clara, it is not necessary to say that every one had the name of Mary preceding the other name as it is customary with us.”

Looking over the religious names of members in our IHM congregation from the beginnings in 1845 and up to the 1920s, it appears the majority of sisters had a single name, preceded by Mary, Maria, Marie, or just the letter “M.”

In 1920, Sister Margaret Mary (Anna) Look was the first Monroe IHM to have a name that did not have “Mary” at the beginning. In a letter written to archivist Celeste Rabaut, IHM, on November 9, 1984, Margaret Mary explained, “St. Margaret Mary was canonized in May 1920. I was received into the community July 22, 1920, and given the name Sister Margaret Mary—coveted by many previously but not given out because ‘Mary’ preceded all names up to that time.”

After Margaret Mary, others began to have Mary, Marie, or Maria as the second part of their name.  We also began to see Latin names like Cor Mariae, Beata Maria, Maria Pacis as well as titles like Marie de Lourdes and Mary de Montfort, Marie Rosary and Mary Immaculate given as religious names.

In the Marian year (1954) almost all the postulants received were given a name with Mary, Marie, or a title of Mary — not just that initial “M.

If you have a Mary naming custom in your community or personally, let us know!

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Taking off your outer garment
by Sister Paula Cooney, IHM

I was recently privileged to share a reflection by Ron Rolheiser, OMI on “Creating Sabbath Space in Our Lives” with a group of elder women religious. His suggestion was a new and challenging insight into Jesus’ washing of the feet at the last supper.

The gospel of John tells us, “Jesus, knowing that he came from God and was going back to God, took off his outer garment…” Jesus was able to let go of all the stuff that wasn’t really essential – his outer garment – to minister to the other.

So we asked ourselves: “What are the “outer garments” that we think are essential that keep me from freely washing the feet of the “others” in my life? Democrat/Republican? Gay/Straight? Islamic/Christian? Pro-life/Pro-choice? Pro-immigration/Anti-immigration?

One of the sisters reflected, “It wouldn’t be so difficult if everyone would become vulnerable but it’s really hard if you are the only one doing it.” Another shared, “If I could only remember that “the other” is just like me – one who has come from God and is going back to God!”

I wonder what our world would be like if everyone “took off their outer garment?”

Paula Cooney, IHM, is an IHM Sister who is currently in ministry to the retirement community of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, California.

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Check out a clip from a video of Ron Rolheiser, OMI, on
Creating Sabbath Space in Our Lives.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where we pray the scriptures together and our prayer requests via the chat room at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

My Greatest Peace Teachers
By Alice Baker, IHM

In reflecting on the question, who are my greatest peace teachers, I’ve come to a simple conclusion; they are all those persons in my life who are Risk-Takers for Peace. So many have touched and inspired me to “step out of the box.” Risk involves just that, and much more. For me, it implies one is grounded in a deep faith and trust in the One who calls — God. For me, Jesus is my prime example of a risk-taker: facing the powers of darkness all around Him with courage and compassionate love. There are many others, too, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, John XXIII, Dorothy Day, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Catherine of Siena. Each one had to listen to that inner voice of Truth that called them to speak their truth to power, risking all. Facing misunderstanding, making mistakes, and suffering through consequences only made them stronger and more courageous workers for peace.

For me, peace work calls me out of myself, stretches my limits, and challenges my status-quo thinking. Never did I dream I would find myself marching for migrants’ rights in the Yale-Croswell-Lexington, Michigan, area in the late 60’s. Nor did I ever see myself driving overnight to a march in support of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and the “Harrisburg 7” in Pennsylvania in the early 70’s. Or did I ever think I would be involved in rallies to save our Catholic schools and parishes in the inner city of Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s. In the last two decades, I’ve found myself responding to peace demonstrations at the School of the Americas, in Ft. Benning, Georgia, and at the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And, one of my most recent challenges came when I found myself in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a member of the Michigan Peace Team in the summers of ’02 and ’04. In all of these peace experiences I find hope from the community of peace activists with whom I walk. Though some immediate effects may not be positive, I know, and believe, the long term effects will always be with me. I have been stretched, challenged, and changed, and have made long-lasting friends for peace.

In Webster’s thesaurus, the word “risk” as a verb or action word can mean: to run a risk, take a chance, lay oneself open to, gamble, do at one’s one peril, go beyond one’s depth, lay oneself open to, go through fire and water, skate on thin ice, fish in troubled waters, live in a glass house, or leap before one looks. Without exception, I am thankful for the many unnamed people in my life that fit these descriptions. They have been present with and touched me deeply. They are Risk-Takers for Peace. May I continue together with them to run the risk – for peace.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – always! (from the movie “Gandhi”)

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Who are your greatest peace teachers and why?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

You are in for an AWESOME treat! My dear sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, stars in this YouTube video. Sister Joyce talks about the wonderful mystery of being called to religious life. Are you a person who is open to being surprised … especially to a God who is full of surprises!? Sister Joyce offers great wisdom for people discerning religious life, including what to look for as you meet sisters and discern, try to figure out if they are “home” for you.

What questions or insights percolate as you watch and reflect on this video?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

FP005 Feature Podcast on IHM Ministry recorded live on May 15, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Sister Julie Vieira, IHM, discusses what ministry is, the IHM lived experience, the liberating mission of Jesus, and cultivating right relationships.

Catholic sisters and nuns minister in a variety of ways. In fact, the ways they can minister are endless because ministry is not simply what you do (e.g., your job), it’s a way of being.

At a recent discernment retreat for women interested in my IHM community, I gave a little talk on what IHM Ministry is all about. I encourage you to listen and add your thoughts below in the comment box. What struck you? In what ways do you think of ministry in general and in your own lived experience?

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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I was wondering what advice would you give concerning my discernment process. I am going to be 35 years old soon, and 5 years ago I left a religious community in my canonical year because I felt God was not calling me to religious life. I returned to my job as a registered nurse and about 2 years ago returned to all of my church ministries. The thing is I am very unhappy and confused about what to do next. Every website I look at seem to have discernment weekends for young young women. I live in the Caribbean and find it extremely fearful to just step out and seek again entering into a community because I am afraid of making another mistake. I don’t want to wake up 45 years old and missed what God wanted me to do.

- Sadie

Dear Sadie,

First I want to say that you are doing a great job at putting God’s desire first — even if you don’t always understand what that desire is. You are very brave to consider the question of religious life a second time. Discernment is pretty intense but also worth opening your heart to again if you feel nudged by the Spirit. Trust that God is speaking to your through your feelings, including the feelings of frustration, fear, confusion, and regret.

Here are some questions that I’d invite you to consider praying over.

• Imagine walking up to a beautiful house inside of which is your deepest desire. You knock on the door. A wise, welcoming person opens the door and asks you warmly, “What is it that you seek?” What do you say?
• You are serving God, the Church, and the vulnerable … what is missing for you?
• Why did you leave religious life before? What continues to attract you?
• When are you most peaceful? most centered in yourself and God?

Pay attention to how your spirit rises or falls in prayer, when you are thinking about religious life, when you think about continuing your lifestyle and ministries as they are now.

Do you have a spiritual director or trusted mentor who can reflect back to you some of your desires and attractions?

Rest assured that God will continue to lead you — stay open to God and be faithful to your prayer and to reaching out to help others. No matter how you choose to live your life, you will be living God’s dream for you.

I am not familiar with religious communities in the Caribbean. We have IHM Sisters in Puerto Rico whom I’m sure would be happy to connect with you. I hope these thoughts help you. Be assured of our prayers.

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Today’s “Praying with the Sisters” podcast has been recorded because the sisters will be in transit this evening. You are welcome to listen to the recorded prayer for today and then to join the A Nun’s Life community to share prayer requests this evening at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone) in our chat room.

Theologian and priest Reverend Richard McBrien provides an excellent summary of the five-part essay written by by Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, on religious life. Sister Sandra’s essay was published in National Catholic Reporter from January 4-8, 2010.

• Part One: Religious Life as Prophetic Life Form, January 4, 2010
• Part Two: Call, Response and Task of Prophetic Action, January 5, 2010
• Part Three: What Jesus taught us about his prophetic ministry, January 6, 2010
• Part Four: Tasks of those who choose the prophetic life style, January 7, 2010
• Part Five: Religious life: sharing Jesus’ passion, resurrection, January 8, 2010

McBrien published his summary of the main points of the essay on his blog Essays in Theology (NCR).

• Sandra Schneiders on religious life – I, March 16, 2010
• Sandra Schneiders on religious life – II, March 22, 2010

Sisters Sandra Schneiders and Julie Vieira, IHM, standing in a redwood tree at Muir Woods

I encourage you to read both Sister Sandra’s essay and McBrien’s summary, the latter of which serves as a good guide for reading the essay.

What in the essay or summary makes you say “Yes!”? What challenges you? What surprises you?

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Join the sisters for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where you can chat with us and others in A Nun’s Life chat room. All you need is an internet connection and a heart open to prayer.

http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic sister? I invite you to come to our home, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Monroe, Michigan, for a discernment retreat. This retreat is for women who are attracted to our IHM spirit and mission and want to live vowed religious life.

What does that mean? Well, are you attracted to the liberating mission of Jesus? Do you have a sense of adventure? Are you open to being surprised by the Spirit of God? Do you wish to be part of a group of diverse women who are bound together in sisterhood by our life and mission in God? Do you wish to live and pray the Gospel with every fiber of your being?

The IHM Sisters invite you to “come and see” … come to our home, be among us, pray with us, work with us, and see how God is calling you.

May 14-16, 2010
beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday night

Riverhouse on the IHM Motherhouse campus
805 West Elm Ave., Monroe, Michigan 48162

Here’s a PDF with more info on the IHM Come and See weekend. If you are interested, let me know or contact the IHM Vocation Director, Sister Mary Bea Keeley.

Included in the retreat will be input on tools for discernment, learning about our IHM way of life and mission, meeting wisdom figures and newly vowed members of the congregation, and more. There will be time for prayer, reflection, input, Mass, chatting, and of course meals and sleep!

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Join the sisters for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where you can chat with us and others in A Nun’s Life chat room. All you need is an internet connection and a heart open to prayer.

http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

From the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR) about one of my nuns …

We are very pleased to announce that Margaret Brennan, IHM, has been chosen to receive the 2010 LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award. The honor will be presented to Margaret at the LCWR assembly in August in Dallas.

Margaret, a Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan, is a theologian, a former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and a professor emerita of theology at Regis College (University of Toronto), where she taught for 25 years.

She has made numerous contributions to the renewal of religious life and has been a courageous voice in the church. Novalis Publishing released her memoir last year, What Was There for Me Once.

At the assembly … we will commemorate Margaret’s life and celebrate her significant influence as an inspirational leader in the church and in religious life.

Read more about Sister Margaret Brennan on aNunsLife.org.

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for LIVE prayer podcast today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). You can share your prayer requests with us and the A Nun’s Life community. http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

AS018 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 19, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: a discerner’s IHM experience, why Catholic sisters support health care reform, Bible translations, common misperceptions about nuns, and more.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What was Sue’s experience visiting the IHM Motherhouse? What was it like to pray and working with the sisters?
• What Bible version do you use for your prayer podcasts?
• What are some common misconceptions that you encounter about nuns and sisters?
• Why are U.S. Catholic sisters supporting the Senate bill on health care?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below.

My dear friend and IHM Sister Margaret Brennan recently published her memoir, What Was There for Me Once (2009 Novalis) and last week National Catholic Reporter published a review of the book called “A life of change and renewal” (February 19, 2010).

In Sister Margaret’s book, we find not just a memoir but a compelling and insightful story. Kilian McDonnell, OSB, remarks, “Here is a story of a young girl, sister, novice mistress, elementary and high school teacher, president of the congregation, and university professor in the midst of rapid social change.” Sister Margaret “had a major part to play in developing women’s religious, academic, and spiritual lives in the second half of the 20th century.”

Here are a few quotes from NCR’s review of the book:

This preconciliar church experience was fulfilling and made sense to her — and she embraced it. Of religious life as it approached Vatican II, she writes: “While I was entirely happy in the traditional model of religious life as it had been lived for hundreds of years, I was open to the coming changes.”

The Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were among those religious who were quick to internalize the Vatican documents and the new theologians appearing on the scene. “To use the framework of [Jesuit theologian] Bernard Lonergan, I would say that for me the change from the traditional model of religious life to the Vatican II model was a process of conversion. In involved a real change in worldview, in horizon.”

“To keep the question of God — and God’s questions — high on the horizon of the world is worth the gifts of our lives,” Brennan says. And, without a doubt, her memoir attests to this purpose.

There are many things I love about this book — most especially to hear the voice of one of my sisters, one who was instrumental in my own vocation and religious life. I also love the way she writes with grace and a confidence in the providence of God. Sister Margaret also fills a huge gap in the Catholic and popular imagination about nuns and sisters. Kilian McDonnell notes this well writing that the book takes us through “the passage typical of many women’s religious apostolic communities from monastic models to religious forms more in keeping with their original active charism.”

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Join us for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/live .

This week is an important one in the church calendar. We celebrate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent in two days. A wonderful Catholic tradition is to celebrate Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. So in light of the advent of Mardi Gras, I’m sharing a picture from a gathering of IHM Sisters from Monroe, Scranton, and Immaculata, and Oblate Sisters of Providence. In true Philly style we had the Mummers join us for one of our celebrations. The Mummers remind me of the art, performance, and regalia that we often see during Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans.

In honor of Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent, A Nun’s Life will be hosting a special Community Podcast tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. CST (your timezone). For more information, please see our blog post on Mardi Gras Podcast.

FP004 Feature Podcast on Consecrated Life with IHM Sisters recorded live on February 7, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include World Day for Consecrated Life, vocations, discernment, Catholic sisters and nuns, prayer, and more.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Today we celebrated World Day for Consecrated Life by partnering with the IHM Vocations team to offer this hour-long podcast on vocations, discernment, and the lives of Catholic sisters today. We were delighted to be joined by IHM Sisters Carol Quigley, Michele Denton, Joyce Durosko, and Mary Bea Keeley.

This Sunday marks the World Day for Consecrated Life, a day instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1997 to thank God for the gift of consecrated life and to let people know about this way of life.

To celebrate, A Nun’s Life Ministry is partnering with the IHM Sisters (of which Sister Maxine and I are both members) to host an hour-long live podcast on vocations, religious life, discerning a call, and all sorts of things! We’ll be joined by Sister Mary Bea Keeley, IHM, and Sister Carol Quigley, IHM, and perhaps more!

Join us at 4 p.m. CST (your timezone) on Sunday, February 7, 2010, here at http://anunslife.org/LIVE. We have a lively chat room that will be happening simultaneous to the podcast.

If you have questions or comments for us regarding vocations, IHM life, prayer, or pretty much anything else, please leave a message for us at our voicemail feedback line: 1-888-703-4732. Messages may be played on the air!

And in the spirit of the World Day for Consecrated Life, we invite you to do your part to promote vocations. We have a number of resources over at IHM Calling blog to help promote vocations.

So what are you going to do this week to promote vocations?

Listen to AS011 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry with guest iconographer Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM. Topics include non-Catholics becoming nuns, realizing you may have a calling, and relationships.

Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, is an iconographer and spoke with us about her ministry as well as her own calling to religious life. You can find out more about Sister Nancy and her ministry at Saint Joseph Studio.

Questions from listeners included:

• How important is having past relationships to discerning a call to religious life?
• How did you feel when you first started to have thoughts about becoming a nun? How did you react?
• What if you long to find love still, but still think that religious life an option?
• Is it possible to become a nun if I haven’t been Catholic my whole life?
• Are there specific rules for writing icons? What is it like to be an iconographer’s apprentice?

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

It is December 8 and that means it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the high holy days for us as Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters. Here are a couple of posts about this feast day, one from my dear friend and sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, called Lily of My Heart and the other is one I wrote for the Young Women and Catholicism blog.

For today, I have chosen an icon from Jesuit Father William McNichols, SJ. Though he has one of the Immaculate Conception, I chose this icon called The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart because it is stunning and speaks to me of this Advent season — the coming of God in our midst, the dawn of a new day.

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart icon by Fr. William McNichols, SJ

How does this icon speak to you? What words of prayer or reflection or action does it inspire in you?

Happy feast day to you!

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST
(your time zone).

In response to yesterday’s post on Advent and compassion, my nun Sister Rose Carmel shared a bit of wisdom that she had just received:

Here are three questions Fr. Helfrich gave us to ask ourselves for Advent. I’d like to share it with all our friends on the post.

1. What have you given up on? (Not “What are you giving up?”)
2. What are you looking forward to?
3. What are you about? (The question asked three men hauling wheelbarrows. The first says “Can’t you see I’m hauling rocks?!” The second: “I’m earning food for my wife and children.” The third: “I’m building a cathedral.”)

Blessings on all for a fruitful Advent.

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). Tomorrow is the Ask Sister Podcast. If you have questions for us, please email them to us at sister (@) anunslife (.) org.

Much can be said (and written) about seeking God’s blessings and seeking God’s ways. Countless questions about God and directed to God have been uttered — what is the meaning in life, my life? how can I give my life to God? what is God like? where is God? does God hear me, notice me?

Sometimes, when pursuing one of these Big Questions, we stumble upon blessings that we did not intentionally seek. For example, way back when, I spent time discerning how God was calling me to use my gifts in the world as a Catholic sister. I was happily committed in my life as a sister but was still trying to find my place in the world in regards to form or context of ministry. Through prayer, conversations with my sisters, retreat, and simply trying new things, I began moving toward a kind of “answer” to what I was seeking. In the midst of all that discernment, that “figuring out” where God was leading me, there were some unexpected blessings.

Like blogging.

I started a simple little blog more as a hobby and to learn more about Internet technologies. I had no expectations for the blog other than it would help me learn a few tricks. I certainly did not expect that I would be working full-time with the A Nun’s Life website and community some 3+ years later! The blog was one of those blessings I stumbled upon while I was trying to pursue this other question of what work I wanted to commit myself to as an IHM Sister. It seemed irrelevant at the time, a mere distraction, yet it was and continues to be a great blessing that has taken me, and my original question, to a new place.

What “blessing stumbled upon” have you had in life? In what ways is God calling you to not necessarily answer your original question but simply to live out of the new place in which you find yourself?

Footnote: Thoughts today inspired by Teresa of Avila (p. 62) and my nun Sister Maryfran Barber, IHM.

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Join Sister Maxine, the A Nun’s Life community, and me for Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. Central Time tonight (your time zone).

We are back after an extraordinary time home at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. In the midst of congregational meetings, liturgy and prayer, and socializing (we did occasionally get sleep too!), Sister Maxine and I were podcasting live from the motherhouse! Each day we had sisters join us on the air with the finale being Saturday night with Special Podcast – IHM Sisters Unplugged! We invited four brave sisters to join us on the air for a live podcast and interaction with you our online audience. In addition, we invited sisters to be present as our very first live audience! We packed the place and were so delighted to share the experience with our nuns!

So it is fitting on this Monday to celebrate our nuns with some Nunday photos courtesy of Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, our dear friend and ministry partner!

Sister Julie (left) explains to the live audience how podcasting live works while Sister Maxine (right) briefs Sisters Marge Polys and Susan Mahalik (Go Phillies!) on what they’ll be doing.

Just a few of the many nuns who came to be part of the live “convent studio” audience! Sisters Theresa Koernke and Anne Crane are in the audience and took part in the second part of the podcast. The warm setting is the community room of the IHM Sisters who live on second floor, A wing. We are grateful for their hospitality and encouragement!

Be sure to listen to the podcast. Here’s a recording:

We talked about life as Catholic sisters, ministry, how each sister discovered and responded to her vocation, prayer, nuns swimming, dealing with doubt in the spiritual life, anchorites and the eremitical life, IHM charism and mission, entering a religious community, and lots of other things!

Sister Maxine and I are back in our own convent studio and will join you tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

And we’ll be back with more NUNDAY photos and stories coming soon!

Sister Maxine and I are delighted to be home at the IHM Motherhouse. Many of our sisters from near and far are interested in what we do and so we invited them to be part of a podcast tonight! We’d love for you to meet them and for them to meet you too.

Please join us tonight at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) which is 7:30 p.m. here in Monroe, Michigan.

Location? Right here at http://anunslife.org/live … we’ll be on air for about an hour, give or take.

We’ll hear from our sisters about their life (how they became a sister, their ministry, and prayer) and take your questions about our life as IHM sisters.

Any preliminary thoughts, questions, or things you’d like us to talk about?

Look forward to seeing you tonight!

Post-show UPDATE: Here’s the recording!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Today is Ask Sister Day! Sister Maxine and I receive lots of questions each week about our life as Catholic sisters as well as many other nun-related questions. We take questions about community, prayer, and ministry, and pretty much everything except the convent sink! Let us know what’s on your mind! You can do so in any number of ways:

• comment below on the day of the Ask Sister podcast
• email us at “sister AT anunslife DOT org” any time before an Ask Sister podcast
• comment in the chat room during a live show
• calling in during a live show

In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time (your timezone)

Here are a few of the questions we already have for today:

• Do most nuns have a college degree? Do communities recommend getting a degree first then entering the convent?
• A lot of orders only have old people left in them? How would a young sister deal with that, especially if patience for the elderly wasn’t her best trait!

I am pleased to have Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, join me today as my guest co-host. Sister Maxine has a meeting but will try to pop in sometime during the broadcast.

We look forward to talking with you. And check out our previously recorded Ask Sister podcasts.

This past weekend I was home in Monroe at our IHM Motherhouse for a gathering of sisters from the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the 3 Immaculate Heart of Mary communities (Immaculata, Scranton, and my community of Monroe). This is the fourth year that I have been part of this group. I’ve written in the past about what the group is like (see posts from 2006 and 2007) so today on Nunday I thought I’d share some photos of our weekend gathering in Monroe, Michigan, at our IHM Motherhouse. Many thanks to Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton) for the beautiful photos.

Sister Mary Anne Bolger, IHM (Immaculata) enjoying desert in the Ice Cream Room. Independent Dairy ice cream is a big-time local favorite!

The OSP IHM Sisters of the Round Table

Sister Jill Kress, IHM (Monroe) Novice, Sister Clarice Proctor, OSP, Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton) visiting "the Barn", the IHM House of Prayer

OSP IHM Board of Directors 2009 at the IHM Motherhouse, Monroe, Michigan

Be sure to check out our new OSP IHM Website created by Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton), and Sister Kathy Burns, IHM (Scranton).

And don’t forget to join Sister Maxine and I today — and every weekday — at anunslife.org/live for a live podcast. There’s a link in the top menu labeled LIVE SHOWS.

Today’s post continues a conversation from the last few days about Sister Sandra Schneiders’ writing. Sister Sandra has written and presented much on Religious Life. To each endeavor she brings herself and the variety of “coordinates” from which she speaks: a Catholic woman, an IHM Sister, an internationally recognized scholar in Scripture and in Religious Life, Professor Emerita at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

When addressing topic it’s not always easy (or desirable) for an author to speak only from one “coordinate”. In this context we’re talking about the specific issue of Religious Life, which is my lived experience and also the lived experience of my IHM Sister Sandra. It’s not always easy or even possible to separate oneself from the subject of inquiry.

Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, known as “Peggy” here at A Nun’s Life, has graciously given us permission to post an essay she wrote on this topic. Click on the link below to view a PDF of her essay.

Concentric Circles of Sisterhood

Introduction to Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, Michigan (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997)

by Margaret Susan Thompson, PhD

Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Maxwell School of Syracuse University

A note about the use of “feminist” in Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary … The IHM congregation has a long history of what today we would call “feminism.” The word has many different meanings. It’s rooted in the belief that all people deserve respect, equality, and justice. Many women around the world lack these things and suffer as a result. In this regard, feminists are women and men who desire a world where the fullness of life is available to all people. “Feminism” also refers to a perspective. For much of recorded history, the experience of women was articulated by men. Feminists are women who articulate their own experience as women, and this can yield a perspective on events, such as the birth of a child or the decision to enter religious life, that may be very different from the perspective of men.

There’s more information about the feminist perspective in Dr. Thompson’s introduction to Building Sisterhood.

The National Catholic Reporter has a new article posted by Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today (September 11, 2009). In this article, Sister Sandra helps explain why it is that all nuns do not wear a habit, live in a cloister, or pray the horarium. Essentially Sister Sandra is filling a gap in people’s experience of women religious. Many people have had experience of or heard about sisters who live a monastic form of religious life and sisters who live an apostolic or ministerial form of religious life. But it’s not always easy to explain how we got the two or how the two are similar and how they are dissimilar.

This essay is also a kind of continuation of a discussion on religious life by Sister Sandra in recent publications: the essay Why they stay(ed), the personal email that NCR published, We’ve given birth to a new form of religious life, and the address she gave to the IHM Congregation, God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009.

In this latest piece, Sister Sandra, a member of my own IHM community, responds to the question, What is ‘apostolic Religious Life’? which, as she notes, has been answered though often times with misinformation. The question appears in various forms, often around three main questions about lifestyle:

“Is culturally conspicuous, uniform garb (habit), fixed group dwelling from which members exit only by necessity and from which non-members are excluded (enclosure, cloister), and a daily schedule including shared meals, work, and especially the oral recitation of prescribed texts and vocal prayers, e.g., divine office, litanies, at several fixed times a day (horarium) essential to Catholic Religious Life as such?” The short answer is “no.”

The article goes on to provide a longer answer contextualized within history, scripture and theology.

This is a very important piece of writing and I recommend that you take a read, especially if you are considering religious life or know someone who is. Use it as a starting point to explore some of the issues and insights that Sister Sandra has raised. Whether or not you agree with what she has written, she has done a good job at naming the significant issues that can create confusion and misinformation.

Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today
(National Catholic Reporter, September 11, 2009)

Please read the article and then join in the conversation below. (NB: The conversation actually got started on another post here so I moved those comment over here.)

Question from Veronica …

I am a 55 year old practising Catholic. Am married, 2 children are now grown up and living with my husband. Thoughts of pursuing becoming a nun has come and go. Now I feel that there is a need for me to do something, where do I go from here?

Dear Veronica, Many thanks for writing in. You are not alone! I’ve run into many women who have similar wonderings about their life and what they can do to tend to this attraction to religious life.

Becoming a Catholic sister or nun may not be an option for you due to your being currently married and your age. Since the process of becoming a nun takes about 7 years, I’m not sure that religious communities would consider the possibility unless you’ve already had a relationship with them.

Still, your attraction and your desires are real and are a calling from God. Each of us is called in some way to dedicate ourselves to God.

You might want to consider becoming an Associate or Affiliate — a lay woman (married/single) who shares in the mission and spirituality of the community but is not under vows. Lay Affiliates or Associates can also be men.  Not all congregations have associates, and those that do vary in the formation process and the degree to which associates can be involved in the life of the congregation. For a specific example of a congregation’s associate program check out the the Monroe IHM page on IHM Associates.

No matter what age you are or what state of life, there are things you can do and ways to be of service. I encourage you to think about your gifts and talents and about what you would absolutely love to do. There are so many people in need and organizations that would love your help. There are also so many ways to deepen your life of prayer and to grow closer to God. Whether in ministry or prayer, look for something that has a sense of community so that you are supported and encouraged in your work and in your life.

Let me know if what kinds of things are of interest to you in terms of prayer, ministry, and community. That way I’ll be able to offer some more specific suggestions to help.

Blessings, Veronica, and to all who have similar wonderings.

Sister Sandra Schneiders’ essay on U.S. Women Religious and the Apostolic Visitation is a must-read essay for all Catholics, all people interested in Catholic sisters and nuns and/or in U.S. history, and definitely all those discerning religious life.

The National Catholic Reporter has just published an essay by Sister Sandra Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Why They Stay(ed) (NCR, August 17, 2009). The essay addresses two sets of questions concerning U.S. women religious that are “roiling the waters” in and outside the church today:

1. Why are religious disturbed about the apostolic visitation?
2. What is the real motivation for this investigation?

What follows is the most lucid discussions on the topic of the Visitation that I’ve encountered. Not only does Sister Sandra address how the Apostolic Visitation is being received by many U.S. sisters and nuns as well as many priests, men religious, and lay people and why it’s disturbing, but she explains what the situation of women religious is and has been since around the Second Vatican Council.

I have to re-read the essay and will offer more thoughts. For now just want to make sure you have seen it. Please bring your questions, comments, and thoughts about this to the comment section below.

I am home at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. Today we have our summer “community days”. All of my sisters come home for days of prayer, study, and discernment about our life together and how God is continuing to call us to live the liberating mission of Jesus. Then on Saturday we have our big community celebration of our Jubilarians, the sisters who celebrate the 25th, 60th and 75th anniversary of their entering the community.

I am thrilled to be home and to see everyone. The whole house is buzzing with good energy and excitement about being together. That is one thing I absolutely love about being an IHM Sister. We cherish our time together, we like hanging out with one another. It energizes us and renews us as we then move back into our ministries.

Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, has made public an important paper on Ministerial Religious Life. In the paper God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009 Sister Sandra describes what Apostolic Religious Life is and how it is evolving (or has evolved) into what she has called Ministerial Religious Life.

Here’s my very brief outline of the paper — any inaccuracies here are mine and not Sister Sandra’s. It’s meant only to give you a sense of the topics in the paper and to encourage you to read the full paper. You really don’t want to miss it if you are at all interested in Religious Life.

Sister Sandra looks at the origins of Apostolic Religious Life (which “has had official canonical recognition since 1900 and existed for centuries before that”) and situates it both canonically (what does Canon Law say about this form of consecrated life) and ecclesiastically (how does Apostolic Religious Life as a lifeform fit within the structure of the Church).

She shows how the Apostolic Religious Life that is being lived today is still authentically religious life and at the same time “involves some very significant discontinuities with earlier understandings of enough of the constitutive dimensions of that life that it is really a new form in relation to traditional apostolic Congregations.” Two important aspects of this evolution are what Sister Sandra calls “the end of Religious Life as Total Institution” and the simultaneous “ministerial turn”. She looks at how both of these have affected our understanding and living out of the vows, community life, ministry, and public witness.

Once Sister Sandra has set the context she goes on to asks, “What has brought about this development and how do we interpret, evaluate, and appropriate it?” What follows is an excellent piece on the impact of the Second Vatican Council on Religious Life. She notes how “most Religious Congregations of women, especially in the developed world, did not read Perfectae Caritatis in isolation, as a kind of self-sufficient magna carta for renewal. They read it through the lenses of Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.” Note: Perfectae Caritatis is the document on the renewal of Religious Life; Lumen Gentium is the document on the Church affirming the universal call to holiness of all the baptized; and Guadium et Spes is the document on the Church in the modern world.

Sister Sandra then looks at the development of a new theology of world and the development of a new spirituality of world as a result of the shifts and the ongoing urgings of the Holy Spirit. Finally, she articulates some of the implications of these developments for vowed Religious Life.

Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, is one of my nuns and a leader in the study of religious life and of biblical spirituality. This talk was originally presented at our IHM Motherhouse for the Sisters and Associates of my community.

Read God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009 and let’s get a discussion going about this. It’s an excellent paper, a good read, and definitely worth reflecting on.

Catholic sisters and nuns live in community in a wide variety of ways. Often we only think of community as living under the same roof, that is in “the convent” or “the monastery” but community actually takes many forms. Simply living under the same roof does not make a community. Likewise, living singly does not mean you are living alone or without community.

Since I’ve been an IHM Sister, I’ve lived various configurations of physical proximity but in all of them have striven to live deeply our IHM community life. I’ve lived singly with few IHMs around me because of the demands of my ministry; I’ve lived with 5 other sisters; I’ve lived with one other sister; and I’ve lived on our Motherhouse campus with nuns everywhere! Each way of living calls forth different aspects of living community.

Because our community like many others is ministerial based, our choices for community life are necessarily diverse so that we can respond to people’s needs. I’ve been told stories about how our sisters years ago heard the news that babies in Korea were dying because there was no one to hold them in the orphanages. The infants needed human cuddling to live and to grow. Our mother superior immediately sent nuns to Korea to minister by “simply” holding the babies. Didn’t think about the fact that we had no convent there or that there were only a handful of nuns she could send. She saw the need and knew that we could help.

I’ve also been thinking about a friend of mine who is in the national guard. She is stationed hours away from her home and family. She lives singly on base and gets together with her family whenever possible. Though certainly a struggle, her marriage and family life is not any less real or authentic. It is now expressed in new and different ways.

Today’s world is full of so many ways to live community and family life. While some of us live this community through physical proximity, many of us also experience community and family in ways that go beyond this proximity. In what ways do you experience this kind of community or family life?

Nunday is back and to celebrate we have my own IHM Sister Sharon Holland. Sister Sharon is not only a legend, but a holy and gentle woman of God.

Sister Sharon, one of the first female lawyers to work at the Vatican, was recently presented with an award (a bronze statue created by sculptor Clay Enoch) from the Catholic Health Association (CHA) on April 23 in Rome. Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of CHA, presented the award, saying Sister Sharon was the association’s “greatest asset in Rome.”

The CHA Board of Trustees passed a resolution honoring Sister Sharon for her years of assistance to CHA and the U.S. health ministry at large. According to Ed Giganti, vice president of communications and marketing for the United States’ CHA, the board’s resolution proclaimed Sister Sharon “a champion of American religious congregations and their ministries” throughout her time in Rome.

Since 1988 Sister Sharon has worked as bureau chief of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life at the Vatican. In 2007 Sister Sharon was awarded the International Medal from St. John’s University in Rome. In the citation for that award , St. John’s called Sister Sharon one of the world’s leading canon lawyers and said she “models what is best about religious life.”

After getting word about Sister Sharon’s CHA award, journalist John L. Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and analyst for CNN and NPR, wrote, “Aside from being an accomplished canon lawyer and trailblazer for women at the Vatican, Holland is also a legend in religious life.” (source; hyperlinks mine)

Sister Sharon is retiring from her ministry in Rome and returning to Michigan this month.

Pictured: Lloyd H. Dean (CHA Board), Sister Carol Keehan, DC, and Sister Sharon Holland, IHM, holding the award.

It’s been a week since we opened the new convent. “New” merely refers to the fact that it’s new as a convent, but in actually it’s an old house with the normal and not-so-normal problems associated with old houses. Take the pipes for example. All corroded. Had to be replaced which delayed our ability to move in. Monday and Tuesday night we ended up with stuff in the truck and ourselves at a local hotel courtesy of the realtor. Moved in on Wednesday. Started cleaning on Thursday only to discover that the base of the lower kitchen cabinets was like a science experiment gone wrong with mold creeping up from the edges. Needless to say, it’s a mess and our move in experience is less than desirable. Still, it’s fixable and we love the house and neighborhood. As soon as the rehabbers get through replacing the offending cabinets, the convent will be in good shape.

As we work with the rehabbers, I am reminded of our IHM Sisters who in the 1930s oversaw the building of our 380,000 square foot building. I wonder how they did it all. We just have a small old house in need of rehab, but they had to start from scratch, put their vision into concrete — literally, and know enough about building, construction, electrical, plumbing, finances, environment, health care, residential living, etc. to build a home for our sisters and create a physical symbol of our IHM life. In just the last few days, I’ve learned a lot about this stuff, and I’ve also learned a bit about the guys working here like their family and why they like/dislike this kind of work, and for the young guys who cut our lawn, what their hopes and dreams are for their own futures.

True, our priority is fixing this place and getting rid the petri dish that is our kitchen, we also are about being present to people no matter where or how we meet them, even if we are the ones who are in need at the time. This is something I have taken always seen in my sisters, especially my nun Joyce who has such a beautiful way of working with people. She doesn’t see “a maintenance person” or “a secretary”, she sees a person full of dignity and light who is using her or his gifts, earning a living, supporting a family, ministering to others. Though shy by nature, I think always of Joyce when I encounter workers of any kind — and I remember to cherish them as she does and as Jesus shows us time and again in the Gospels.

How have you cherished a worker lately?

I have often heard Catholic sisters and nuns say, “Join the convent, see the world” because many of us do travel quite a bit for ministry and mission. Along with that comes the always pleasant task of actually moving. You know what I mean — boxes, tape, clutter, dust, lifting, moving, renting, changing, bubble wrap, exhaustion!

Moving also gives one the opportunity for self-reflection, to think about what one is attached to, how simply one lives, what facilitates community and mission, etc.

As you might suspect, I am in the process of moving — like right at this moment. My computer is the last to go. In an hour I will be picking up our 17′ rental truck (the experience of driving that thing in Chicago will probably make for an interesting blog post!) in order to move out of my current abode and to a new house with another IHM sister where we can live and offer hospitality to our IHM sisters and others.

Chloe the Convent Cat is coming along with us, and as you can see, she’s a bit self-reflective too.

We’ve done a great job at sorting and donating stuff. It’s so easy to accumulate “stuff” so I’m hoping to keep things simple. I feel better when I have less clutter, less stuff to be distracted by. After traveling so much, I realize that most of what I need I can toss in a backpack.

What have been your experiences of “move”? What does living simply mean for you?

Recently I was asked what the difference is between the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan, and the IHM Sisters of Immaculata, Pennsylvania. There’s no easy answer to this, especially since there’s also a third IHM community, the IHM Sisters of Scranton, Pennsylvania, plus the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the original community of one of our IHM founders. So I’m throwing them all into the mix here too!

A little historical context first though — check out an earlier post OSP IHM: Nuns Who Rock in which I wrote about how our co-Founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin was originally an OSP Sister and how the IHM congregation became 3 separate communities.

I find it difficult to characterize how we are different because as an IHM Sister, I am overwhelmed (in the good sense) by our shared charism and our connections to one another and to our founders. The 3 IHM communities are like three siblings who were separated when they were young — their early, foundational years were shared, but then they each were in different places and so lived and expressed their original shared experience in different ways. Some of those ways were based on the geography and the Catholic culture in the area, the needs of the people and of the Church in that area, and of course the women whom the Spirit led to be part of that particular community.

So we have both similarities and differences. Honestly, the best way to get a sense of what we are like (similarities and differences) is to be with us. The facts (e.g. this one is in Monroe, this one Philadelphia, etc.) cannot come close to telling the whole story, and ultimately (especially if one is discerning religious life) you can tell which one “fits” you when your heart leaps for joy when you are with them.

The OSP IHM Timeline, a narrative of our histories, can tell the story way better than I can. In it, each community expresses who they are through the various periods (early history, Vatican II period, tody). The OSPIHM Timeline was made back in 2005 by an inter-congregational team that I was blessed to be part of. It’s pretty cool. Just click on the link below!

OSP IHM Timeline

A happy and blessed Monday of Holy Week to you! And, happy NUNDAY! Today’s photo of a Catholic sister comes from Discerninglife25. Here’s what she wrote:

This is Sister Laura Downing, a Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Immaculata, Pennsylvania. This is a picture of her taken at my Catholic High School in the Diocese of Raleigh, NC. Sister Laura teaches theology to freshman and sophomores, and she always has a vibrant joy, enthusiasm for teaching, and an attractive personality (not to mention a great sense of humor!).

My relation to Sister Laura is that though she is not my teacher, she is still my friend. She is always there to talk, even when she has flocks of kids sitting in her room (she is a very popular nun!). She even took me to her motherhouse, which was a very fun trip indeed. Overall, I say that Sister Laura is very down to Earth and knows how to have fun. She has certainly defined today’s nun very well indeed!

Thanks, Discerninglife25! What a wonderful portrait of Sister Laura.

Now since we’re talking about IHM, I wanted also to address a question from an earlier post about Immaculata IHMs and Monroe IHMs. But that will have to wait till tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Sisterhood among Catholic sisters and nuns is a powerful, Spirit-filled experience. I’ve been thinking a lot about sisterhood after having been home at the IHM Motherhouse for a couple of days. I was with a group of sisters doing some planning for our community’s retreat/celebration days this summer. Throughout the meeting and at supper following our meeting I was overwhelmed with the bond of sisterhood. It’s something that I never even imagined prior to being an IHM Sister. It’s not easy to define or explain, but let me try to put words around what it feels like.

Sisterhood is …

• always having a home, a real home
• knowing that your nun has your back
• being part of something bigger than yourself, bigger than the sum total of individuals
• falling in love with God and mission, and falling in love with how God and mission are expressed in your sisters
• sharing the deepest things of the Spirit with another sister or group of sisters
• praying together, laughing together, grieving together, working together
• the sparkle in the eye of a sister that lets you know that all will be well
• mentoring one another in religious life, ministry, and prayer
• having a common history and shared core values
• daring and risking together for the sake of the Gospel
• becoming more yourself than ever
• relating to one another with great tenderness
• being in real, tangible community even when ministry takes you to away from your sisters
• holding all things in common with your sisters
• being held up by your sisters’ prayer when you can’t find the strength to pray
• having sisters in heaven who keep watch over us
• working through disagreements, misunderstandings, failings without forgetting that we belong to one another and to Christ
• being willing to lay down your life for your sister

When people ask me what it’s like to be a sister, how we are different from other people committed to God who pray and do good works, this is what I want them to experience, this sisterhood, this dynamic of how we are with one another which is incarnate in how we are with the world.

What else might you add? Sisterhood is …

It seems that almost every religious community that I’ve gotten to know has lived through a fire. Sometimes it’s their motherhouse or a big convent, other times it’s one of their schools or places of ministry. The Monroe IHM Sisters are no exception. In our collective memory is “The Fire”, a blaze that destroyed our college and academy.

Here’s how Sister Amata Miller, IHM, described it in “An Enterprise of Sisterhood: Building the IHM Motherhouse in the 1930s” (Building Sisterhood):

On 3 June 1929, a disastrous fire gutted St. Mary College and Academy in the southeastern Michigan city of Monroe. Though no one was injured, the destruction of the newly renovated building — housing their premier educational institution — was a crushing blow to the IHM congregation. Keeping all-night vigil at the site of the tragedy, and providing sandwiches and coffee to those who had come to help fight the blaze, were the two women who together would lead the IHM congregation through the rebuilding process: Sister Ruth Hankerd, who would become the general superior in 1930, and Sister Miriam Raymo, who would be her partner as congregational treasurer.

Sisters Ruth and Miriam decided to not only rebuild the academy, but to build a new Motherhouse, as the current one (located on the banks of the River Raisin) was a “jerry-built complex” that was “rapidly falling into decay”.

What is amazing about all this, is that this project of rebuilding not one but two major complexes happened in the midst of the Great Depression. Sister Amata notes that the building project was reportedly one of the largest going on in the country at the time with skilled tradesmen coming long distances to work on it. It took the care and remarkable business and financial savvy of Sisters Ruth and Miriam as well as the scrimping and saving of the entire IHM community to make it through those years. Even though it was a difficult period, we never missed a payment.

And the building, though recently renovated, continues to serve us well.

Thanks to our amazing IHM Archivist Donna Westley
for the info and photo!

In the last post Make My Heart Simple, a conversation started around the verse, “I will give glory to your name for ever, for your great kindness is upon me: you have rescued me from the deepest depths.” (Psalm 86).

Many of us have been or currently are in those “deepest depths” … that place where life takes a different, often tragic, turn that we did not expect or particularly want. A sudden major illness or disability ranks right up there in this regard. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I know this all too well having had breast cancer almost 7 years ago and having a tough recovery for that first year or so.

After the shock of finding out about having cancer or going deaf or whatever it may be, it can be difficult (understatement!) to get a handle on one’s thoughts and feelings. Fear, anger, guilt, grief, bitterness, vulnerability, sadness and questions like “why me?”, “what do I do?”, “why if …”, “how can I live like this?” …. all these things can all come rushing in on us and can feel like they are crushing us.

Then there’s the question of God. Where does God fit into this? Did God “will” me to get sick? Is God responsible for this? Can I get angry with God or  yell at God for this thing that has happened? Do my feelings of fear, anger, or bitterness mean that I don’t trust God? Will God be with me through this?

It is totally okay to have these feelings and questions. Life just took an unexpected turn and even if things turn out okay and are “back to normal”, what you have gone through does change you irrevocably. Even though it’s been 7 years since I had my first surgery and then got the “all clear”, I am still dealing with how my life has changed — having breast cancer made me rethink everything — my perspective on life, God, myself, relationships and the whole world. And yes, I was bitter about the whole affair. I was young, I had fallen in love with the IHM life and mission, I was active in ministry, and then SMACK! Cancer. After the shock and just getting through the things that needed to be done, I was able to feel more — to feel scared, bitter, and heart-broken. I never blamed God, as I don’t believe God gives us things that hurt us, but I did wonder if any good could come of this. How could I live with something that God didn’t want for me and I certainly didn’t want for me either? Was it possible — really and truly possible — for me to not only cope but to fully embrace this?

There is a great quote from one of our IHM founders, Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR, that is a guiding lights in my life, and it has come to embody how I see God at work even in the midst of my struggles:

“I began without thinking of the future of the work, leaving it to God alone to bless and make it prosper, if it were pleasing to God and useful for the good of others.”

The message of this quote helps me to move through the anger and the grief to a place where I can truly embrace the thing before me (in this case, cancer) and trust that God will make good come of it. Doesn’t mean that God willed the tragedy or that God or I condone it. It just means that even in the darkest, deepest depths, God is there and finds a way bring good to me and to others.

As I write this, I am very much mindful of the tragic death of Natasha Richardson, of the sudden death of one of my friends’ religious sister, and of my own nuns who are living through cancer. Please keep these women and their loved ones in your prayers.

From what or whom do you draw strength when you are in the deepest depths?

I am a little late writing my post today because I have a couple of my friends visiting from Monroe. I tried to get one of them to write a post this morning, but sadly, coffee had not yet been fully absorbed in her system. The girls are on their way to Racine, Wisconsin, for a sex workshop. Okay, that may be a little too sensational of a description, but it makes for good reading. Seriously they are attending a workshop on psychosexual development for men and women in formation from a variety of communities in this area.

It’s been great hanging out with them. Last night I took them out for Thai food (vegetarian Pad Thai is AWESOME). When we got back to the convent (Chloe the Convent Cat had everyone’s bed ready but I think she ate the mints on the pillows) we each had some work to do. It was actually quite funny because I looked up at one point and the younger one was sitting in her flannels knitting and our veteran sister was reading the NY Times online from her Mac laptop. The juxtaposition of young knitter and older Internet surfer made me laugh!

This morning we enjoyed coffee together and chatted about IHM community life and other verities of life. It’s so good to have my nuns here. I love to see how our IHM charism incarnates itself in each and every nun and how she uniquely expresses that common charism.

So now I must go before they get too absorbed in double yarn overs and Persepolis. Got to get them on the road so they don’t miss out on the sex workshop!

In my last post, I noted that I am giving myself to more spiritual reading this Lent and beyond. I think I found the book that I’d like to begin with: The Saints’ Guide to Happiness: Practical Lessons in the Life of the Spirit by Robert Ellsberg.

The suggestion to read The Saints’ Guide to Happiness came from my nun, Sister Mary Ann Untener, IHM. Listen as she describes the book and the impact it has had on her. (Please note: this was filmed next door to a room full of nuns playing Wii and other games. So there’s a bit of rowdiness in the background!)

The other books mentioned by Sister Mary Ann are as follows:

• The Way of a Pilgrim
• The Seven Storey Mountain

Sister Mary Ann also mentioned her brother Bishop Ken Untener and the author Henri Nouwen.

In yesterday’s post on 4 Steps for Discernment and Decision-Making, Sister Mary noted in Step 2 that you can create a kind of chart to help you figure out how you feel about a decision that you have to make.

I thought I’d give you an example of what that chart might look like for the question, Should I go to graduate school or not?

The pros and cons don’t have to seem like significant reasons, they just have to be important to us. I remember when I had to choose a high school, I ended up going to one because their basketball uniforms looked more cool than the other school’s. Now it wasn’t my only reason, but that desire encapsulated for me all that I felt about the school and that I could envision myself in that school, with those people, and, of course, in that uniform!

Try making a chart for yourself. Consider something in your life that requires you to make a decision. It might be big, it might be small. Try it out and be attentive to the guidance that Sister Mary gives on discernment. Let us know how it goes.

What questions or observations do you have for Sister Mary McDevitt, IHM, in preparation for our online discussion with Sister Mary this Sunday, February 15, from 7-9 p.m. EST?

In Decision-Making Using a Process of Discernment of Spirits, Sister Mary McDevitt, IHM, led us through understanding discernment, consolations, and desolations. When discerning and having to make a significant decision, it’s important to be aware your own inner spirit which is where God dwells within you. Today, Sister Mary takes us through concrete steps to help us figure out how God is calling us. She uses the discernment question example from the previous post, “Should I go to graduate school or not?”

Now, let’s get practical.

Are there steps I can take once I am more aware of my inner spirit?

1. Pray

• I pray and stay in the presence of God often.
• I ask God to give me freedom of spirit.
• I try to say to God, “Whatever choice is your will, it’s ok with me.”
• When I lift up each choice to God — e.g., about going to graduate school — I notice what my heart says. I check out my thoughts, too, and the long-range consequences of this action.

2. Write down two columns for each choice

• I line up the pros and cons of the situations. Two columns on why I would not go to graduate school — the good side (pro), and the not-so-good side (con).
• Then I do the same with the reverse: the pros and cons of going to grad school.
• I pray over the list and see which reasons are most moving, most serious and which affect my relationships with other people.
• One expert suggests: Be on your death-bed and ask which choice you would be glad you made.
• For Christians: Bring the decision and kneel under the Cross of Christ. How does it make sense there? Will this decision bring me closer to Jesus Christ in my living the Gospel?

3. Time for confirmation

• Once I have made a tentative decision, I talk it over with those who know me.
• I wait awhile and see if I feel peaceful in this decision as it becomes clearer.

4. Choose, act and be grateful

• One or many of these steps may guide me. I may wish to do these steps with a spiritual companion.

Sister Mary has given us a lot to think and pray on. In preparation for our live discussion with Sister Mary this Sunday, February 15, from 7-9 p.m. EST, please offer your comments and questions below.

The following reflection is from Sister Mary McDevitt, IHM, a spiritual director and sister in my community. Sister Mary will be joining us this Sunday, February 15, from 7-9 p.m. EST to have a live discussion with you around discernment and decision-making.

What is “Discernment of Spirits”?

Why spirits in the plural? From many holy writings we can say that not every personal impulse and not every attraction is necessarily from God. For example, “I feel called to be on a beach in Hawaii.” The attraction may be something rather shallow that is from our own non-reflective spirit’s prompting.

For those of us who believe in a spirit world, some decisions may be the tempting of an evil spirit. This is tricky because evil never looks like evil, but instead looks like good. On the other hand, the inspiration may be truly from the Holy Spirit of God. So there are at least three kinds of spirits: holy, not-so-holy, and evil.

How do I figure out which spirit is prompting me?

Saints in both Hebrew and Christian scriptures and during the history of spirituality have searched to find, “What is the will of God for me?” or, “What is the dream of God for the part of the world that I inhabit?” (Think of the “dream of God” as Martin Luther King’s, “I have a dream”.) Let’s say the question is, “Should I go to graduate school or not?”

Here are two steps that might help me figure it out:

1) Self-Awareness

I must search my heart. I need to habitually analyze what I am thinking, and feeling, asking if this inspiration comes from God and and where is it leading? This takes time, habitual prayer, and profound honesty.

2) Awareness of my affective states

This means recognizing certain good feelings known as consolations. These feelings lead me closer to God. Other feelings identified as desolations are also states of affectivity which may indicate an increasing distance from God.

Here are some examples:

1) C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis, while riding on the upper layer of a bus in England, felt he was touched by God. He described it like someone asking him to let go. He knew it was from God. When he surrendered to the good Spirit he wrote that it was as if he was a “man of snow” beginning to melt and what was rigid became flexible. (Read more about C.S. Lewis)

2) Angela of Foligno

Angela of Foligno experienced desolation and only dryness of spirit, feeling abandoned by God. She could not pray as usual and only felt absence. (Read more about Angela of Foligno)

3) Immaculée Ilibagiza

Immaculée Ilibagiza, having endured 3 months of hiding with 7 others in a crowded bathroom during the Rwandan genocide, wrote later in Left to Tell, “A wave of despair washed over me and I was overwhelmed by fear. I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could to resist negative thoughts… I prayed as intensely as I ever have. The struggle between the evil whispers raged in my mind.” (Read more about Immaculée Ilibagiza)

Think about a situation in which you have a decision to make. Given what Sister Mary outlined about discernment, consider what consolations you experienced, and what desolations you experienced. Keep in mind that just because something is uncomfortable or difficult doesn’t mean that it is automatically desolation. We can feel consolation and profound peace, even in the most difficult situations. Correspondingly, just because something is easy and pleasurable doesn’t mean it is automatically consolation.

Write down, either here or for yourself, an experience of consolation and/or an experience of desolation. What did you do with the experience? What did you learn from it? (“I don’t know” is a perfectly acceptable answer!)

P.S. Tomorrow’s post will deal with getting practical with discernment and decision-making. And please plan to join us on Sunday from 7-9 p.m. to chat with Sister Mary.

Discernment is a topic that regularly comes up on A Nun’s Life. Last month I wrote a post called How is God calling you? and a few of you asked about continuing the conversation with a spiritual director. Well, I’ve been working on that and am pleased to announce that one of my IHM Sisters who is a spiritual director will be joining us this Sunday evening from 7-9 p.m. EST for a discussion on discernment and decision-making from a faith perspective.

Sister Mary McDevitt is an Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sister from Monroe, Michigan. For many years, she worked in areas of spiritual formation within the IHM congregation and engaged in retreat work. Sister Mary taught history of spirituality and spiritual direction at a local seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. There she assisted seminarians and lay men and women to complete their Master of Divinity degrees before they served as pastors, associates and staff in parishes. Sister Mary is now director of Visitation North Spirituality Center in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In preparation for Sister Mary’s visit, I asked her to provide us with an overview of what discernment is and some concrete steps to help us figure out how God is calling us. Over the next few days, I’ll post her reflections on discernment and we can chat about it. Then on Sunday, Sister Mary will join us on the blog for a live discussion (like how we did the Doubt movie discussion).

Stay tuned for more on discernment and details about Sunday’s live discussion with Sister Mary. Feel free to offer any preliminary thoughts, questions, etc. on discernment or ideas of what you’d like to see Sister Mary address within the realm of discernment. And please spread the word about this event!

It’s not easy writing a blog post when your heart is heavy. This morning I woke to find out that two of my dear IHM Sisters died. One sister I’ve known since I entered the community. She lived at the Motherhouse in Monroe and always made sure to keep an eye out for new members to make sure they were doing okay. She used to play cards with me and other nuns, and took great pride in letting others know that she was teaching the young sisters Spite and Malice! The other sister was the sibling of a nun that I lived with while I was in formation. I rarely saw her without her smiling or laughing or having a twinkle of mischief in her eye!

As I think about and pray for my sisters, I am reminded of my first experience ever of dealing with the death of a Catholic sister. When I lived in Toronto with the Loretto Sisters (IBVM), a sister from the house I lived at died. Sister Emma was a fireball, a woman in love with life and with God. She was a singer, and tried to get my friend Michelle and I to sing but there was little hope for either of us! Her death was a shock to all of us, and it broke all of our hearts. I learned so much from the sisters of that house of how to care for one another, how to celebrate and to mourn Emma’s death, and how to place one’s sorrow and one’s trust in God.

Sister Emma’s wake was held in our house — it was a big convent, but still felt a little weird to me because I’d never lived in a house where a wake was held. When the funeral home brought the body to the house, the sisters welcomed the body at the door and prayed as the casket was brought in. The sisters sat vigil with the body, sometimes praying and crying quietly, other times chatting about wonderful Emma stories! The lay women of the house (we were mostly grad students boarding with the sisters while we worked on our degrees) were welcomed into this holy mourning and celebrating. We too sat vigil, we served at the funeral Mass, we buried our sister, and we celebrated as Emma would have wanted us to.

The experience of knowing Sister Emma and of journeying with the Loretto Sisters through her death touched me deeply. It was probably one of the most formative experiences of my life. It taught me the meaning of sisterhood, and it illustrated for me — in full color — what it means to give one’s life, and one’s death, totally to God.

Please pray for my IHM Sisters Alice and Bea who are “dwelling now in light yet ever near”… and  for my Sister Marie, Alice’s sibling, and all of those who loved these women and were touched by them.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Today’s Nunday photo and story come from a recent visit of IHM Sisters to Haiti. The IHM Sisters of Monroe together with the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the Immaculata IHMs, and the Scranton IHMs, have a corporate commitment to care for the people of Haiti. Here is our corporate statement:

We, the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the IHM Sisters, impelled by the Gospel, stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, in their struggle for dignity, life and human rights both in Haiti and the United States.

You can read more about the Haiti Project on our OSPIHM.org website.

Periodically sisters go to Haiti to help, some stay for a short time, others for a while. Sister Michele Denton, an IHM sister from Monroe, was recently in Haiti with The World Community for Christian Meditation, an organization founded and led by Benedictine monks.

You can read about Sister Michele’s experience in Haiti at our IHM website in the article Sister Bears Witness to Haitian Struggles.

Send in your photos of real Catholic sisters and nuns.

See more photos of sisters and nuns who have been featured on Nunday at A Nun’s Life.

Celebrate Inauguration Day at my nun Sister Mary Bea Keeley’s blog, IHM Calling. Sister Mary Bea invites people to IHM nuns and friends share your experience of today’s Inauguration Day.

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Nunday is here and we’re on a roll with IHM Sisters. Yes, it’s true, I am a bit partial to IHMs because they are my nuns!

This photo and story were sent in from Kaz, a regular here at A Nun’s Life.

Sister Elizabeth Zeestraten is an IHM Sister who just turned 100 on December 31, 2008. The Monroe Evening News online edition featured a story about her – IHM sister rings in century of life.

Writes Kaz,

I  liked reading how she summarized her life as the article stated with St. Paul’s words of wisdom found in Thessalonians 5:16-18, which reads: “Rejoice always, never cease praying and render constant thanks; such is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ.”

You can also find a writeup about Sister Elizabeth on our IHM Sisters website. What amazes me is that Sister Elizabeth has been a Catholic nun for 77 years!!! WOW! She is an inspiration to me.

Nunday is here, and I am delighted to celebrate it with a picture of my own nun, Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM. I am currently in San Francisco to give a workshop and was able to spend yesterday with Sister Sandra who ministers as Professor Emerita at the Catholic Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley here in California.

Sister Sandra and I spent the day at Muir Woods. On our way there we stopped at an overlook to see the ocean.

Sister Sandra is a Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality and has done much work on behalf of religious life. She is a great thinker and theologian. She is also a great nun. Sister Sandra lives and breathes religious life and is an inspiration to me. We had such a good time hiking together and talking about life. I learned that she is a runner and that she’s bungee jumped and that she’s seen hippopotamuses in the wild!

I’ve got a few more pictures of our time together which you can see on my Facebook page.

Catholic nuns today often have many, many different careers throughout their life. We have a saying in our IHM Congregation that comes from one of our founders, Louis Florent Gillet: “I desire to be everywhere when I see so many needs.” This spirit pervades all that we do, and often means that we end up doing many different kinds of things throughout our life.

Sometimes we take on a ministry because our congregational leaders (superiors) ask us to consider it. Other times we become aware of a need and are inspired to address it. We pray and talk it over with our nuns and decide together what to do. Many nuns also experience what you do in terms of having a passion (e.g. promoting literacy, caring for the sick, catechizing young people) and entering the job market to find a position in which we can minister.

My nuns are no exception to having multiple careers or callings throughout their religious life. I’d like to introduce you to my Sister Margaret Chapman, IHM, who currently serves as president of Compassionate Companions, Inc. in Michigan. Here’s her story.

P.S. This interview is a result of my Nun Questions post.
Your Questions. IHM Sisters respond.

A Nun’s Life is pleased to welcome Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, as a guest blogger today. Sister Margaret is the first IHM Sister that I ever met, and it is through her that I recognized my call to religious life.

“… the lily of my heart”

The date was the eighth of December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Dressed in white uniforms, white stockings, white gloves, and a light blue chiffon shoulder sash, the whole student body processed with lilies which were placed before the altar of Mary in the Sacred Heart Convent Chapel. “Oh Mary, I give thee the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.” Each year for all my twelve years at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, I, along with my three sisters and all of our classmates knelt to place our lilies, symbols of our dedication and innocence, to Mary. Later as a student at IHM Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, vested now in academic cap and gown but still with lily in hand, I once again placed a flower at Mary’s altar.

On July 1, 1945 I entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Monroe Michigan. Once again I knelt before Mary’s altar as a postulant – but alas! with no lily in hand..

The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary took root in 1845. It was co-founded by Louis Florent Gillet, a Redemptorist missionary, and Theresa Maxis Duchemin a former Oblate Sister of Providence. On May 12, 1846, the bishops of the United States formally decreed the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as Patroness of the United States. A year later, on December 8th, 1847, the title of the IHM Community was changed from Sisters of Providence to Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the original habit from black to “sky blue.”

Each year on this Feast of Mary, IHM Sisters, now having grown into three religious congregations, solemnly renew their vows. For many years best habits and veils were worn (the scent of the cedar closets mingled with that of the lilies!).  Today, while the blue habit for the most part has disappeared, the dedication to Mary as model and type of the Church remains strong and vibrant. Commitment to the meaning and message of her liberating song on behalf of the poor and oppressed fuels a dynamic integration of prayer and commitment.

O Mary, I give you the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.

Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, is a theologian and travels the country giving talks and retreats on a variety of topics and persons in Catholic theology and spirituality.

Sister Anne Crane, IHM, joins us today. This is one of the videos that I took when I was home in Monroe. You’ll hear a bit of partying in the background as this video was taken during “pub night” at one of our IHM gatherings. Sister Anne responds to one of your Nun Questions.

What books are you reading now?” (from Marquis and others)

In this video Sister Anne talks about three books (listed below) which are different in themselves but which are connected by a common theme of “girls growing up”.

The three books that Sister Anne reviews are as follows:

• Run: A Novel by Anne Patchett
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Sister Anne Crane, IHM, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation. Sister Anne recently retired from Saint Edward’s University where she was a Professor of English. She lives on our IHM Motherhouse campus in Monroe, Michigan.

I have been doing a lot of thinking on, praying with, and studying of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This image of Mary is near and dear to my own heart as it is the namesake of my own religious congregation. But recently it has been an image — and a certain kind of devotion — that has drawn me in, almost as if asking me, inviting me, to go deeper.

I didn’t really grow up with Catholic devotions though the sacredness and mystery of Catholic devotions surrounded me like incense on a high holy day. As a kid, I wondered how people could be so into their devotion, what attracted them so much. No devotion ever gave me that kind of feel so I figured I was either doing something wrong or I just wasn’t religious enough.

Things have changed since I was a child. I look at and experience Catholic devotions in a very different way, though the feeling of sacredness and mystery are still there. As Mary and the image of her immaculate heart have stayed and grown with me, I’m in a different place to consider what devotion means to me and what this image in particular means to me as well as within the Church’s tradition and the lived faith of others.

Coincidentally (in fact I remembered this just as I was writing this post) I recently discovered a book we published at Loyola Press in our company library: Awake My Soul: Contemporary Catholics on Traditional Devotions It’s got me wondering what Catholic devotions mean to other people.

How are you with devotions? What are especially meaningful to you and how does it engage you, call to you deep within your spirit?

Today we are blessed to have Sister Theresa Milne, IHM, with us. This is one of the videos that I took when I was home in Monroe. Sister Terry responds to one of your Nun Questions.

What particular spiritual practice is most important to you in your walk with the Lord and why?” (from deerose)

In this video Sister Terry talks about the simple prayer of saying “yes” and “thank you” to God.

The two books that Sister Terry mentions are as follows:

• Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
• Thank God Ahead of Time: The Life and Spirituality of Solanus Casey by Michael Crosby

Sister Theresa Milne, IHM, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation. Sister Theresa lives at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan.

Question from a reader …

Dear Sister, I notice that religious nuns wear a ring just like a wedding band or wedding ring married couples wear. The wedding ring of my brother and my sis-in-law has an engraving of their names underneath the ring. What about religious nuns do they engrave something on the ring like Our Lord Jesus name or ICHTUS or JMJ or AMDG? (acronyms etc.)

What about the design of the ring … do they have one or they’re just plain? Thanks for answering. Adia

Good questions! First, the tradition of Christians wearing rings is an interesting one. The Catholic Encyclopedia article on rings notes that Christians, like their non-Christian counterparts, wore rings as a sign of their station, occasionally having them engraved with a religious symbol or bedecked with a jewel. The ring in some cases was used as a seal but it also was a symbol of “conjugal fidelity”. And so a bishop might receive a ring as an “episcopal ornament conferred in the rite of consecration … as emblematic of [his] betrothal … to his Church.” Other ecclesiastics might also receive the privilege of wearing a gold ring. In terms of nuns, the article notes that “nuns and consecrated virgins wore “plain rings … in memory of their betrothal to their heavenly Spouse”.

So this symbol of fidelity, of lifelong commitment unto death is a significant one for wearing the ring. The tradition of wearing rings in religious life continues. Each religious community of Catholic nuns and sisters, as well as monks and brothers, has its own customs around the ring — if they wear one, what material it is made from, whether it has an engraving, etc. The ring is normally given when the sister professes vows — for some communities (like mine) the ring is given at first profession; for others it is given at final profession of vows.

In my IHM Congregation, we wear a gold band that is engraved. On the outside of the ring, there is an engraving of two hearts that are pierced by a single sword. The two hearts represent the Immaculate Heart of Mary (our namesake) and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On the inside is the Latin text, Ego te sponsabo, which means “I will wed thee”. What is particularly cool about my congregation (probably others too) is that we “recycle” our rings. I did not receive a new ring when I professed my vows; rather I received the worn ring of one of my IHM sisters that is “dwelling now in light”. I love this tradition because it binds me to the whole IHM “communion of saints”. I don’t know the name of the sister who wore this ring, but I can feel her warm presence and encouragement.

For sisters and nuns reading, what is your ring like and what does it symbolize for  you and for your congregation? Also, for anyone, tell us about the important ring that you wear.